The country’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is going to create a record by presenting the 9th consecutive budget.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will create a new record by presenting the ninth consecutive budget on February 1. This budget, which is being presented amid global uncertainty, is expected to contain reformist measures aimed at accelerating economic growth. With this, Sitharaman will come close to the record of 10 budgets presented by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai in different time periods. Desai presented a total of six budgets as Finance Minister during 1959–1964 and four budgets between 1967–1969.
Former Finance Ministers P Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee had presented 9 and 8 budgets respectively during the tenure of different Prime Ministers. However, the record of presenting the highest number of consecutive budgets will remain in Sitharaman’s name. This year she will create a record of presenting the 9th consecutive budget under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
When Prime Minister Modi came to power for the second time in 2019, Sitharaman was made India’s first full-time woman Finance Minister. After this, after the Modi government came to power for the third time in 2024, the Finance Ministry remained with him. Till now Sitharaman has presented a total of eight consecutive budgets including the interim budget of February 2024. Some important facts related to presentation of budget in independent India are as follows:
Some special facts about the budget
- First Budget: The first general budget of independent India was presented on November 26, 1947 by the country’s first Finance Minister, RK Shanmukham Chetty.
- Highest Budget: Former Prime Minister Morarji Desai holds the record for presenting the highest number of budgets. He presented a total of 10 budgets as Finance Minister during the tenure of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and later Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.
- Second highest budget: Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram presented budget nine times. He first presented the budget on March 19, 1996 during the United Front government led by Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda. He also presented several budgets in the Congress-led UPA government.
- Third highest budget: Pranab Mukherjee presented eight budgets during his tenure as Finance Minister. He presented five consecutive budgets in 1982, 1983 and 1984 and between February 2009 and March 2012 in the Congress-led UPA government.
- Manmohan Singh: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, while being the Finance Minister in the PV Narasimha Rao government between 1991 and 1995, had presented five consecutive budgets.
- Longest Budget Speech: The record of longest budget speech is in the name of Sitharaman. His February 1, 2020 budget speech lasted for two hours and 40 minutes. At that time, he had finished his speech with only two pages left.
- Shortest Budget Speech: Hirubhai Muljibhai Patel’s interim budget speech of 1977 is the shortest speech ever, which was only 800 words.
- Time: According to tradition, the budget was presented at 5 pm on the last day of February. This timing was in line with colonial-era practice, so that announcements could be made at the same time in London and India. This time was changed to 11 am in 1999 by Yashwant Sinha, the then Finance Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. Since then budgets are presented at 11 am.
- date: The date of presenting the budget was changed to February 1 in 2017. This was done so that the government could complete the parliamentary approval process by the end of March and the budget could be implemented with the beginning of the financial year from April 1.