Budget Facts: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present Union Budget 2024 in Parliament today. Here are some facts related to budget presentation in independent India.

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget 2024 in Parliament today. By presenting this budget, she will create a history of presenting the seventh consecutive budget for the financial year 2024-25. Today, FM Sitharaman will surpass former Prime Minister Morarji Desai's record.

Sitharaman, who turns 65 next month, was appointed India's first full-time woman finance minister in 2019 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a decisive second term. Since then, she has presented six straight budgets, including an interim budget in February this year.

It is to be noted that the entire budget for the financial year 2024-25 will be FM Sitharaman's seventh budget in a row. She would better Desai's record of presenting five consecutive full budgets and one interim budget between 1959 and 1964.

Here are some facts related to budget presentation in independent India:

First Budget: Free India's first Union Budget was unveiled on 26 November 1947, presented by RK Shanmukham Chetty, the country's first Finance Minister.

Maximum Number of Budgets: Morarji Desai, who once held the post of Prime Minister, set an excellent record by presenting 10 budgets as Finance Minister. Effectively, he served under two prime ministers, Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri.
He presented his first budget on 28 February 1959 and presented full budgets in the next two years before presenting an interim budget in 1962. Two full budgets were then presented. Four years later, he presented the second interim budget in 1967, followed by three full budgets in 1967, 1968 and 1969, making a total of 10 budgets.

Second highest number of budget: P Chidambaram, a well-known figure in the field of finance, stood on the budget platform nine times. His budgetary journey began on March 19, 1996 under HD Deve Gowda's United Alliance government. In the next year too, he carried out the responsibility of presenting the budget under the same government. In 2014 onwards, under the Congress-dominated UPA government, Chidambaram once again stepped into his familiar role of shaping the country's budget.

He presented five budgets between 2004 and 2008. After serving as the Union Home Minister, he returned to the Finance Ministry and presented the Budget in 2013 and 2014.

Third Highest Number of Budget: Pranab Mukherjee unveiled a total of eight budgets during his tenure as Finance Minister. His budget was presented consistently in the years 1982, 1983 and 1984 and then under the UPA government from February 2009 to March 2012, which was led by the Congress party.

Manmohan Singh: As Finance Minister in the PV Narasimha Rao government, Manmohan Singh, who later served as Prime Minister, presented five back-to-back budgets from 1991 to 1995.

Longest Budget Speech: Sitharaman holds the record for the longest budget speech on 1 February 2020 when the presentation lasted for two hours and 40 minutes. At that point, she shortened her speech with two more pages to spare.

Shortest Budget Speech: Hirubhai Muljibhai Patel's interim budget speech in 1977 is the shortest ever at 800 words.

time: Traditionally, the budget was presented on the last day of February at 5 pm. The timing follows the colonial era practice when announcements could be made simultaneously in London and India. India is 4 hours 30 minutes ahead of British Summer Time and so presenting the Budget at 5pm in India ensured that it was happening during the day in the United Kingdom.

The time was changed in 1999 when Yashwant Singh, the then finance minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, presented the budget at 11 am.

Then the budget is presented at 11 am.

Date: In 2017, the government decided to move the budget announcement date to February 1. The move was aimed at wrapping up parliamentary approval by the end of March, allowing the budget to be implemented from the start of the fiscal year on April 1. Prior to this change, the budget was announced on February 29, which delayed implementation until May or June, mainly due to the time-consuming parliamentary approval process.