Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to announce the final budget today, July 23, India, marking her seventh budget speech. Sitharaman’s last speech was during the interim budget on February 1, 2024.
The finance minister’s interim budget speech was her shortest budget speech, taking just around 60 minutes. In 2020, Nirmala Sitharaman spoke for 2:42 hours while presenting the Union Budget–the longest Budget speech in India’s history.
With another speech expected today, let’s take a look at the longest and shortest budget speeches in India’s history.
Budget 2024: Longest speeches by duration
Nirmala Sitharaman
The year 2019 was iconic in India’s economic history, as it was the first Budget presentation by India’s first full-time woman finance minister. A 10-point vision for the decade, benefits for MSMEs and start-ups were the key highlights. Sitharaman’s speech that year lasted two hours and 17 minutes.
Jaswant Singh
Jaswant Singh’s 2003 Budget speech clocked in at two hours and 13 minutes. In his speech, Singh proposed universal health insurance, announced e-filing of income tax returns, and reductions in excise and customs duty on certain items.
Arun Jaitley
In 2014, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a tax exemption slab from ₹2 lakh to ₹2.5 lakh and raised foreign direct investment (FDI) in defence to 49 per cent. Jaitley took two hours and 10 minutes to announce the budget.
Budget 2024: Longest speeches in words
If we were to track words, then former finance minister Manmohan Singh has the longest budget speech with 18,700 words to his credit in the 1991 budget presentation.
Arun Jaitley is in the second spot, clocking 18,604 words.
Budget 2024: Shortest speech
Hirubhai M. Patel’s interim budget speech in 1977 – 800 words. He presented the Union Budget in 1977. Patel’s Budget speech contained just 800 words.
