Nirmala Sitharaman, Finance Minister, is set to create history by presenting her ninth consecutive Union Budget on February 1 (Sunday), for the 2026-27 fiscal year, surpassing most predecessors in continuity under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, though former PM Morarji Desai holds the overall record with 10 budgets across stints (six from 1959-1964 and four from 1967-1969).
P Chidambaram presented nine budgets non-consecutively, Pranab Mukherjee eight, and Manmohan Singh five straight ones from 1991-1995. Appointed India’s first full-time woman Finance Minister in 2019 after Modi’s second term- and retaining the role post-2024- she has delivered eight straight budgets, including an interim in 2024, with her 2020 speech holding the record for length at two hours and 40 minutes.
PM Modi hailed this milestone as a point of pride in parliamentary history. India’s first Budget came on November 26, 1947, from RK Shanmukham Chetty; traditions evolved from colonial-era 5:00 pm February-end presentations to 11:00 am since Yashwant Sinha’s 1999 shift, and February 1 since 2017 for smoother April 1 implementation- contrasting the shortest speech by Hirubhai Mulljibhai Patel in 1977 at 800 words.