Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to Present Record Ninth Consecutive Budget
New Delhi- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to present a record ninth consecutive budget on February 1. The upcoming budget is anticipated to include reform measures aimed at bolstering economic growth in the midst of a volatile geopolitical climate.
This will bring Sitharaman closer to the record set by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who presented a total of 10 budgets over various periods. Desai delivered six budgets during his tenure as finance minister from 1959 to 1964, and four budgets between 1967 and 1969.
Former finance ministers P Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee presented nine and eight budgets, respectively, under different prime ministers.
However, Sitharaman will remain the record holder for presenting the most consecutive budgets – nine straight budgets under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
She made history in 2019 by becoming India’s first full-time woman finance minister when Prime Minister Modi secured a decisive second term. Following Modi’s third term victory in 2024, Sitharaman retained her finance portfolio.
Up to this point, she has delivered a total of eight consecutive budgets, including an interim budget in February 2024.
Facts about Budget Presentations in Independent India
- First Budget: The first-ever Union Budget of independent India was presented on November 26, 1947, by the nation’s first finance minister, R K Shanmukham Chetty.
- Most Number of Budgets: Former Prime Minister Morarji Desai holds the record for presenting the largest number of budgets, with a total of 10 budgets during his tenure as finance minister.
- Second Highest Number of Budgets: Former finance minister P Chidambaram presented the budget on nine occasions.
- Third Highest Number of Budgets: Pranab Mukherjee presented eight budgets during his tenure as finance minister.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh delivered five straight budgets between 1991 and 1995 when he served as finance minister in the P V Narasimha Rao government.
Sitharaman holds the record for the longest budget speech, lasting two hours and 40 minutes in 2020. On the other hand, Hirubhai Mulljibhai Patel’s interim Budget speech in 1977 remains the shortest at just 800 words.
In terms of timing, the Budget presentation date was changed to the 1st of February in 2017 to expedite the Parliamentary approval process and allow for budget implementation from the start of the fiscal year on April 1.
Traditionally presented on the last day of February at 5 pm, the budget timing was shifted to 11 am in 1999 by the then finance minister, Yashwant Sinha, in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
