Image Source : PTI (FILE) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman
Union Budget 2024: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to break the record of former Prime Minister Morarji Desai by presenting her seventh consecutive Budget on Tuesday for the fiscal year 2024-25. The upcoming Budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year (April 2024 to March 2025) will be Sitharaman’s seventh in a row, breaking Desai’s record of five consecutive full budgets and one interim budget between 1959 and 1964.
This year will feature two budgets—an interim one in February and a full one this month—because a sitting government cannot present a full Budget just before general elections. The July 23 presentation will be the first Budget by the BJP-led NDA government since its re-election last month.
Morarji Desai holds record for presenting most Budget
However, the record for presenting the most number of budgets is still held by former Prime Minister Desai. He presented a total of 10 budgets during his tenure as finance minister under Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri. Desai presented his first budget on February 28, 1959, followed by full budgets in the next two years. He then presented an interim budget in 1962, followed by two more full budgets. After a four-year gap, he presented another interim budget in 1967 and then three full budgets in 1967, 1968, and 1969, bringing his total to 10 budgets.
While, Sitharaman, who was appointed in 2019 as India’s first full-time woman finance minister when Prime Minister Narendra Modi secured a decisive second term, since then, she has delivered six consecutive budgets, including an interim one in February this year.
Nirmala Sitharaman holds record of longest budget speech
Sitharaman also holds the record for delivering the longest budget speech. During the 2020 Union Budget on February 1, Sitharaman began her presentation at 11 am and continued until 1:40 pm, speaking for an impressive two hours and 42 minutes. Her speech was cut short due to health concerns, with only two pages remaining. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla took over to complete the rest of the budget reading.
In her first budget speech for the year 2019-2020, Sitharaman spoke for two hours and 17 minutes. In 2022, her speech lasted for one and a half hours, making it her shortest-ever budget presentation.
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