Budget 2024: Who was the first woman to present the budget? Know some such interesting facts

Budget 2024: On February 1, Finance Minister Sitharaman will present her sixth consecutive budget speech and first interim budget speech for the financial year 2024-25 (FY25). FM Sitharaman was appointed India’s first full-time woman Finance Minister after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won its second consecutive general election in 2019. Despite being the first woman to hold the full-time role, Sitharaman is only the second woman to present the budget in India. 

In the discussion of Budget 2024, know about the powerful female heroine who gave such an important economic knock for the first time. On this special occasion, we invite you to connect with her from a new perspective and explore the proud achievements of this woman leader.

Some interesting facts related to Union Budget

First woman to present the Union Budget

Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was the first woman to present the Union Budget of India for 1970–71. He took over the role after the resignation of the then Finance Minister Moraji Desai. During this period, Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister and also held the title of India’s first woman Finance Minister, although she held the post for only a short time until Yashwantrao Chavan took over the Finance portfolio in March 1971. When ministers had to step down, the Prime Ministers Took over the finance department. It began with Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, who read the Union Budget of 1948 after T.T. Krishnamachari was found guilty on corruption charges. Nirmala Sitharaman is the first full-time woman Finance Minister of India.

India’s first budget

The first Indian budget was presented by James Wilson, a Scottish economist of the East India Company, on April 7, 1860. RK Shanmukham Chetty presented the first budget of independent India on 26 November 1947.

How long was the longest budget speech?

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman holds the record for the longest speech for the Union Budget 2020, which lasted 2 hours and 42 minutes. His budget speech for FY23 lasted for about 1.5 hours. For the interim Budget 2024, the Finance Minister has already warned not to expect any major announcements. While Sitaram has given the longest budget speech in terms of time, Manmohan Singh’s Union Budget of 1991-92 was 18,650 words, Which was the longest of those words.

shortest budget speech

In 1977, Finance Minister Hirubhai Muljibhai Patel gave the shortest budget speech of only 800 words.

Highest number of budgets presented:

Moraji Desai holds the record for presenting the most budgets, having presented 10 budgets during 1962–69 before resigning as Finance Minister in 1970. Of the 10 Union Budgets he read, eight were full budgets and two were interim budgets.

Change in timing of budget presentation

In 1999, Yashwant Sinha broke the tradition of the British era and changed the time of presenting the budget from 5 pm to 11 am.

Change in date of budget presentation

Arun Jaitley changed the date of budget presentation to February 1, moving away from the last working day of February tradition that started in 2017.

language of budget presentation

Till 1955, the budget was presented in English. Later, the Congress-led government implemented Hindi along with English.

paperless budget

The COVID-19 pandemic made Budgets 2021 and 2022 paperless, with Nirmala Sitharaman opting for traditional ‘bahi-khata’; Instead of a briefcase.

merger of railway budget

The Railway Budget, which was presented separately for 92 years, was merged into the Union Budget in 2017.

Change of printing location

Till 1950, the printing of the budget took place at Rashtrapati Bhavan, later it was shifted to Minto Road, New Delhi. A government press was established in North Block in 1980.