Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to present the Union Budget 2025 on February 1, with many hopeful that it will bring tax relief for the middle class and low-income groups. As India eagerly awaits the announcement, there’s a keen interest in what this year’s budget will hold. Reflecting on the past, it’s notable that Sitharaman set a record in 2020 for delivering the longest budget speech, a milestone that highlights the detailed approach she has brought to the country’s financial planning.
India’s longest budget speeches have been delivered by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in 2019 where she set her first record with a 2-hour and 17-minute speech. She laid out a 10-point vision for the upcoming decade which focuses on areas like the MSME sector and startups. She then broke her own record in 2020 and delivered an even longer speech lasting 2 hours and 42 minutes. This remains the longest budget speech in Indian history to date.
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh in 2003 delivered a budget speech that lasted 2 hours and 13 minutes. During his address, he covered important topics such as universal health insurance, e-filing of income tax returns, and reductions in excise and customs duties. His speech held the record for the longest at the time, before Nirmala Sitharaman surpassed it in 2019.//
Finance Minister Manmohan Singh in 1991 set the record for the longest budget speech in terms of word count, delivering a speech with 18,700 words. He still holds that record today. Arun Jaitley follows closely in second place with a speech that contained 18,604 words.//
The shortest budget speech in India was delivered by Finance Minister Hirubhai M. Patel in 1997, where he presented the interim budget in just 800 words. In 2024, current Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also delivered her shortest speech, taking only 60 minutes to present the interim budget.//
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