- Nirmala Sitharaman will present her ninth Union Budget on February 1, 2024
- She will set a record for most consecutive Budgets presented by a Finance Minister
- Morarji Desai holds the record with 10 Budgets presented across different terms
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to make history by presenting her ninth Union Budget on Feb. 1. This will bring her closer to the record of 10 Budgets set by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai.
With the upcoming Budget, Sitharaman will also set a record for presenting the most number of consecutive Budgets. Since her appointment as the FM in 2019, she has presented a total eight Budgets so far, including the interim Budget of February 2024.
Let's look at some interesting facts from India's budget history that highlight its evolution and notable records:
- Former Prime Minister Morarji Desai presented 10 budgets over different periods. He delivered six budgets as Finance Minister between 1959 and 1964, and four more between 1967 and 1969. He presented these budgets under PM Jawaharlal Nehru and later under PM Lal Bahadur Shastri.
- The first Union Budget of independent India was presented on November 26,1947, by R. K. Shanmukham Chetty, the country's first Finance Minister.
- P. Chidambaram presented the Budget nine times, first on March 19, 1996 under PM H.D. Deve Gowda and again in 1997. He later presented five Budgets between 2004 to 2008, and returned in 2013 and 2014 during the Congress-led UPA government.
- Pranab Mukherjee presented a total of eight Budgets over different periods. He delivered three Budgets in 1982, 1983 and 1984, and five consecutive Budgets from February 2009 to March 2012.
- Manmohan Singh presented five straight Budgets between 1991 and 1995 when he was Finance Minister in the P.V. Narasimha Rao government.
- Nirmala Sitharaman holds the record for the longest Budget speech. On Feb. 1, 2020, her address lasted two hours and 40 minutes, ending with two pages still left to read.
- Hirubhai Mulljibhai Patel's interim Budget speech in 1977 is so far the shortest at just 800 words.
- The Union Budget was traditionally presented at 5 p.m. on the last day of February to match UK daytime. However, this colonial practice was eliminated In 1999, when Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha moved it to 11 a.m., which continues to be followed.
- In 2017, the Budget date was shifted to Feb. 1 from the last day of February to ensure Parliamentary approval by March-end, allowing implementation from 1 April.
- India's first ever Union Budget was presented on April 7, 1860 by James Wilson, finance member of the Indian Council and founder of 'The Economist'. Introduced after the Revolt of 1857, it aimed to reform India's financial system.
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