Ahead of Budget 2024, know interesting facts related to Budget presentation in Independent India

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to present her seventh straight Union Budget on Tuesday, July 23, for the financial year 2024-25, surpassing the record held by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai.

Sitharaman, who was appointed finance minister in 2019, has presented six straight budgets so far, including an interim budget in February this year.

Union Budget 2024-25 will be her seventh straight, topping Desai's record, who presented five consecutive budgets and one interim Budget.

Here are some interesting facts related to Budget presentation in Independent India:

First budget

Independent India's first-ever Budget was presented by the country's first Finance Minister RK Shanmukham Chetty on November 26, 1947.

Most budgets

Former PM Morarji Desai is the record holder for presenting the most budgets as finance minister under the tenures of ex-Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri.

His first budget was on February 28, 1959, and he presented full budgets in 1960 and 1961 before presenting an interim one in 1962. This was followed by two full budgets. He presented an interim Budget in 1967, followed by three full budgets in 1967, 1968, and 1969.

Second highest number of budgets

Former Finance Minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram presented the Union Budget on nine occasions, with the first on March 19, 1996, and his last Budget in 2014.

Longest budget speech

Sitharaman presented the longest budget on February 1, 2020, lasting two hours and 40 minutes. The current finance minister had to cut short her Budget speech with two pages remaining.

Shortest budget speech

The interim Budget speech by Hirubhai Mulljibhai Patel in 1977 is the shortest, with just 800 words.

Budget timing

Earlier, the Budget was presented at 5 pm on the last day of February. This was done so that the announcement would be made in India and London at the same time, as India is 4 hours and 30 minutes ahead of British Summer Time.

In 1999, then Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha presented the Budget at 11 am. Since then, it has become a norm to present the Budget at 11 am.

Budget date

In 2017, the Budget presentation date was changed to February 1 from the last date of February to finish Parliamentary approval by March end and allow its implementation from the start of the fiscal on April 1.