Budget 2025: Longest And Shortest FM Speeches In India's History
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman broke all records in 2020 to present the longest Budget speech in India’s history.
Preparations for Union Budget 2025 are in full swing as India anticipates what Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has in store for the country’s billion-plus citizens this year. From tax reforms to duty cuts, the common man has a lot of expectations from this year’s Budget. All the suspense will come to an end on Feb. 1, when Sitharaman delivers her eighth consecutive Budget speech in the Parliament.
In India, the finance minister delivers the Budget speech in Parliament, unveiling the government’s plans for the economy and the people for the year. This is why each Budget speech is considered highly significant. Ahead of the much-awaited Budget 2025, here’s a look at the longest and shortest budget speeches in Indian history.
Longest Budget Speech - Budget 2020
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman broke all records in 2020 to present the longest Budget speech in India's history. Her speech for Budget 2020-21 lasted for as long as 2 hours 42 minutes.
During the speech, Nirmala Sitharaman introduced several economic reforms like the new tax regime. The FM also announced the much-awaited initial public offering of Life Insurance Corp. of India.
Midway through her marathon speech, Sitharaman felt unwell and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had to step in to read the last two pages of her Budget speech.
That year, Sitharaman broke her record in 2019, when her Budget speech was 2 hours 19 minutes long.
Before Sitharaman, the longest Budget speech was delivered by Jaswant Singh in 2003, which lasted for 2 hours and 13 minutes. Arun Jaitley’s 2014 Budget speech followed close behind at 2 hours 10 minutes.
Shortest Budget Speech - Budget 1977
The shortest-ever Budget speech in India was delivered by then Finance Minister Hirubhai M. Patel. His interim Budget speech of 1977 contained only 800 words.
Longest Budget Speech In Terms Of Words - Budget 1991
The record for the longest Budget speech by words was set by Manmohan Singh, who was the Finance Minister of India in 1991. His Budget speech that year, under the PV Narasimha Rao government, was 18,650 words. Singh had presented one of India’s most crucial budgets in 1991, liberalising the Indian economy.
