Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting the interim Budget for fiscal year 2024-25 on February 1, 2024. This would be her sixth consecutive budget since 2019. Other than Nirmala Sitharaman, other finance ministers who have presented at least five consecutive Union Budget include Morarji Desai, P Chidambaram, Pranab Mukherjee, Manmohan Singh, Yashwant Sinha, and Arun Jaitley. Being an interim Budget, it is said to have no major announcements as it is coinciding with the general elections year which is scheduled for early next year. The full budget for the fiscal year 2024-25 will be presented after the formation of the new government following the general elections. The Budget is allotted for the upcoming fiscal year, which runs from 1st April to 31st March of the next year.

While one fact about the upcoming Budget is it being an interim instead of a full Union Budget, here are some interesting facts about Budget presentation in the country:

India contains a 163-year old legacy of budget presentation in the country. The first budget in the country was introduced by James Wilson, a Scottish economist, on April 7, 1860, under the East India Company rule. Post-independence, the first Budget was presented on November 26, 1947 by then Finance Minister RK Shanmukham Chetty. There have been 75 annual budgets, 14 interim budgets and four special budgets, presented in the country since Independence.

The longest and shortest Budget speeches

The record for giving the longest speech was set by the current Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1, 2020 when she presented the Union Budget for 2020-21 and spoke for two hours and forty-two minutes. During the speech, Nirmala Sitharaman beat her own previous record set in July 2019 when she delivered her first budget, speaking for 2 hours and 17 minutes. Now, the shortest Budget speech was delivered by Hirubhai Mulljibhai Patel in 1977, when he spoke just 800 words. He was the finance minister of India from 1977 to 1979 under Morarji Desai-led government.

Budget speech with most words

While we already talked about the longest and the shortest Budget speeches, in 1991, then finance minister Manmohan Singh, under Narasimha Rao government, delivered the longest Budget speech in terms of words, clocking in at 18,650 words. The second lengthiest speech was delivered by Arun Jaitley during his 2018 Budget speech which was a 18,604 words speech. Arun Jaitley took 1 hour and 49 minutes to complete his speech.

Most number of Budget presentations by a finance minister

Former prime minister Moraraji Desai, during his tenure as finance minister from 1962 to 1969, holds the record for submitting the most number of Budget proposals till now. Moraraji Desai presented 10 Budgets, followed by P Chidambaram with 9 Budget presentations, Pranab Mukherjee presenting 8 Budgets, Yashwant Sinha with 8 Budget presentations in his kitty, Manmohan Singh too presenting 8 Budgets, Arun Jaitley at 5 and Nirmala Sitharaman too at 5.

Budget presentation timing

In 1999, then Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha altered the timing of the Budget presentation to 11 am. During the colonial-era, the Budget used to be presented at 5 pm on the last working day of February. Again in 2017, then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley started the practice of presenting the Budget on February 1 instead of the last working day of the month.

Budget presentation by prime minister

While generally, the finance minister is tasked with presenting the Union Budget every year, there have been instances when it was presented by the prime minister of the country. Pandit Jawaharlal Lal Nehru was the first prime minister to present a Union Budget. In 1958, then Finance Minister TT Krishnamachari resigned due to his alleged involvement in the Haridas Mundhra scandal, and so, Pandit Nehru had to present the Union Budget. Again in 1970, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi presented the budget when Finance Minister Morarji Desai resigned protesting against the nationalization of fourteen Indian private banks without consulting him. Similarly, in 1987-88, the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi presented the budget when Finance Minister VP Singh resigned.

Paperless Budget

In 2023, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the first-ever paperless Budget, as she read her speech from a tablet. Earlier in 2019, she ditched the colonial tradition of carrying the Budget in a briefcase. The finance minister adopted the traditional ‘bahi khata’ to present the Budget document. The documents were wrapped in a silk red cloth with the national emblem on top.