Budget 2024: Who holds longest budget speech record? 12 interesting facts

As Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to present her sixth budget and first interim budget speech, here are some interesting facts about the budget that you should know:

Read more: Interim Budget 2024: Date, time and where to watch live?

1. Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was the first woman to present India's Union Budget for 1970-71 as she took on the role following the resignation of then Finance Minister Moraji Desai. Indira Gandhi also earned the title of first female finance minister of India although she only held that post briefly.
2. Nirmala Sitharaman is the first full-time female Finance Minister of India.
3. The first Indian Budget was presented on April 7, 1860, by Scottish economist James Wilson from the East India Company.
4. RK Shanmukham Chetty presented independent India's first Budget on November 26, 1947.
5. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman holds the record for the longest budget speech in 2020, which lasted 2 hours and 42 minutes.
6. Manmohan Singh's 1991-92 budget speech amounted to 18,650 words, making it the longest in those terms.
7. In 1977, Finance Minister Hirubhai Mulljibhai Patel delivered the shortest budget speech with only 800 words.
8. Moraji Desai holds the record for presenting the most number of budgets, presenting 10 during 1962-69- eight were full budgets and two were interim budgets.
9. Yashwant Sinha, in 1999, shifted the budget presentation timing from 5 pm to 11 am.
10. Arun Jaitley changed the budget presentation date to February 1, departing from the last working day of February tradition, in 2017.
11. Until 1955, the Budget was presented in English.
12. The railway budget, presented separately for 92 years, was merged into the Union Budget in 2017.