New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to present her ninth consecutive Union Budget on February 1, marking a historic milestone. The budget is expected to focus on reform measures to support economic growth amid ongoing global geopolitical uncertainties.

With this, Sitharaman moves closer to the record held by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who presented a total of 10 budgets across different terms. Desai delivered six budgets between 1959 and 1964 and four more between 1967 and 1969.

Former finance ministers P Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee presented nine and eight budgets respectively, spread across different governments and tenures.

Sitharaman, however, will continue to hold the distinction of presenting the highest number of budgets consecutively — nine straight budgets under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

She was appointed India’s first full-time woman finance minister in 2019 after the BJP secured a second term under Modi. Following the Prime Minister’s third consecutive victory in 2024, Sitharaman retained the finance portfolio. So far, she has presented eight consecutive budgets, including the interim Budget in February 2024.

Key facts about Budget presentations in independent India

The first Union Budget of independent India was presented on November 26, 1947, by the country’s first finance minister, R K Shanmukham Chetty.

Former Prime Minister Morarji Desai holds the record for presenting the most budgets, with 10 delivered during his tenure as Finance Minister under Jawaharlal Nehru and later Lal Bahadur Shastri. His first budget was presented on February 28, 1959. He went on to present full budgets over the next two years, followed by an interim budget in 1962 and two full budgets thereafter. After a four-year gap, he presented an interim budget in 1967 and three full budgets between 1967 and 1969.

P Chidambaram ranks second, having presented the Union Budget nine times. His first was in March 1996 during the United Front government led by H D Deve Gowda. He presented another budget the following year and later delivered five budgets between 2004 and 2008 under the UPA government. He returned as finance minister to present budgets again in 2013 and 2014.

Pranab Mukherjee presented eight budgets during his tenure as finance minister — three between 1982 and 1984, and five consecutively between February 2009 and March 2012 under the Congress-led UPA government.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presented five consecutive budgets between 1991 and 1995 while serving as finance minister in the P V Narasimha Rao government.

Sitharaman also holds the record for the longest Budget speech. Her address on February 1, 2020, lasted two hours and 40 minutes and was curtailed with two pages remaining. The shortest Budget speech so far was delivered by Hirubhai Mulljibhai Patel in 1977, consisting of just 800 words.

Traditionally, the Union Budget was presented on the last working day of February at 5 pm, a practice inherited from the colonial era to align announcements with daytime hours in the United Kingdom. This timing was changed in 1999 when then finance minister Yashwant Sinha presented the Budget at 11 am during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

Since then, Union Budgets have been presented at 11 am.

In 2017, the Budget presentation date was advanced to February 1 to ensure parliamentary approval by the end of March and allow implementation from the start of the financial year on April 1. Earlier, budgets presented on February 29 often delayed implementation until May or June due to the parliamentary approval process.

PTI