Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made history on Saturday by presenting her eighth consecutive budget with a 74-minute-long speech. This achievement brings her closer to the record held by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who presented 10 budgets during his tenure, six between 1959 and 1964 and four from 1967 to 1969.
Sitharaman holds the record for presenting the maximum number of consecutive budgets under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She was first appointed as India’s full-time woman finance minister in 2019, following Modi’s decisive second-term victory. After his third-term win in 2024, Sitharaman continued to retain her finance portfolio.
Longest Budget Speeches in History
With her 2 hour 40 minute budget address in 2020, Sitharaman broke yet another record. It’s interesting that, with two pages left, she had to end it. Following closely behind her was former Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, whose two-hour and thirteen-minute address from 2003 covered important topics like tax cuts, e-filing income tax returns, and universal health insurance.
With 18,700 words in 1991, former Finance Minister Manmohan Singh holds the record for the longest budget speech. Arun Jaitley comes next with a speech that is 18,604 words long. With only 56 minutes to complete, Sitharaman’s 2024 interim budget was her shortest. So not 2025, but her 2024 budget speech was the shortest budget speech she gave.
Other Noteworthy Mentions
Former finance ministers P. Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee presented nine and eight budgets, respectively, under different prime ministers. Meanwhile, Hirubhai Mulljibhai Patel holds the record for the shortest interim budget speech in 1977, with just 800 words.
With her consistent contributions and record-breaking milestones, Nirmala Sitharaman continues to shape India’s economic narrative, setting benchmarks for future finance leaders.
