From February 1, 2025, to be precise; Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman read her books through the pages to his eighth straight budgets, making history. She would then surpass the record of Pranab Mukherjee, of eight-time continuance in Budget-making.
Ms Sitharaman, appointed India’s first full-time women Finance Minister in July 2019, presented the maiden Budget some time around the same year. Since then, she has lent out her hands to seven consecutive Budgets, with one being a mere interim of February 2024.
Who holds the maximum budgets at the center stage?
Morarji Desai remains to be the one man who has presented most Union Budgets. Desai had been the finance minister making twenty budgets in batches in 1959-1963 and from 1967 to 1969, a total of 10 budget-making an account of all his leading and interim budgets.
Desai presented his first Budget on February 28, 1959. This was followed by a detailed Budget in subsequent two years and listed as an interim Budget in 1962. Two more full Budgets, each an account of the years spent by the NDA up to Sikh, and another one in 1967. Thus concluding on full circles of their own in the presentation of yet another interim Budget, followed by a succession of three full Budgets in 1967, 1968, and 1969, amounting to odd 10 in all.
Second Place-Bearer: P Chidambaram
P Chidambaram second among all contenders with nine Unions Budget officially under his name. He presented his maiden Budget during the U.F. Government in 1996. It was then in 1997 when he did the following. There were as many as 5 years he took to present full Budgets under the U.P.A. government between the years of 2004 and 2008. Two more between babydoll years in 2013 and 2014 come to make nine in total.
Pranab Mukherjee Just: A Gift
Pranab Mukherjee gave eight full Union Budgets, soon to be overtaken by Nirmala Sitharaman. Mukherjee gave three and five consecutive Budgets between the early eighties and 2009-2012, respectively.
Consecutive Budget Record
The way Sitharaman is plowing ahead with her eighth such Budget truly will be the most-ever to continue displaying the feat. Morarji Desai had done so with six in row, a record Sitharaman eventually obliterated on July 23, 2024.
In a nutshell
As Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman becomes rooted in the annals of Indian finance when she delivers this her eighth consecutive Union Budget. A continuation of her unbroken legacy of economic policy-making, she claims her competitive place with the most influential finance ministers of India.
