Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will today present her 7th straight Union Budget and break the record of former Prime Minister Morarji Desai who delivered six budgets continuously. She became a full-time Finance Minister in 2019. In the Union Budget’s history, Prime Ministers have often presented the Budget.
When the Prime Ministers Presented the Union Budget
- The first Prime Minister of India Pt Jawaharlal Nehru presented the Union Budget in 1958. The then Finance Minister T T Krishnamachari resigned after corruption charges, just before the budget session. Nehru took responsibility for presenting the budget.
- After Nehru, former Prime Minister Morarji Desai also presented the Union Budget from 1967-68 to 1969-70. He also presented an interim budget for 1967-68.
- After Desai, India Gandhi became the third Prime Minister who presented the Union Budget in 1970 and became the first female to do so.
- After Indira, Rajiv Gandhi presented the Union Budget during his tenure as the Prime Minister. He read out the budget for 1987-88.
Budget Speech by Finance Minister
- The first Finance Minister of India R K Shanmukham Chetty presented the first Union Budget on November 26, 1947.
- The first interim Budget was presented by C D Deshmukh for 1951-52.
- The highest number of budgets was presented by Morarji Desai, who delivered his first budget speech in 1959. He presented 10 budgets in his political career.
- Nirmala Sitharaman holds the record for delivering the longest budget speech in 2020 which lasted for 2 hours and 40 minutes.
- The shortest budget was presented in 1977 by Hirubhai Mulljibhai Patel, just 800 words. It was an interim budget.
