This year, the current Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has set a record by presenting the sixth budget in a row – five annual Budgets and one interim – a feat earlier achieved only by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai.

Morarji Desai holds the record of presenting the most budgets among Indian finance ministers. Desai presented the budget 10 times during his political career. He was India’s Finance Minister in the 1950s. 

P Chidambaram holds the second spot in presenting nine budgets during his time as a finance minister. 

Pranab Mukherjee, who is also the former president of India, presented the budget eight times during his tenure as the country’s finance minister

Yashwant Sinha is fourth on the list to have presented the budget seven times under former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, from 1998 to 2002. 

Next, former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh presented the budget for six years during his term as finance minister of India. 

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is presenting her sixth budget. She has previously presented five full budgets since July 2019. She is also the first full-time woman finance minister of India.

After the Interim Budget for 2024, Nirmala Sitharaman will surpass YB Chavan and Arun Jaitley who presented five budgets. YB Chavan delivered the interim budget for the fiscal year 1971-72 followed by presenting the final budgets for the four consecutive years.  

Photos Courtesy: AFP/PTI