Next month, when Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will table Union Budget 2024-25 in Parliament, she will be breaking a record. Sitharaman will become the first Finance Minister of the country to present seven consecutive Union Budgets.
By doing this, Sitharaman will surpass the record currently held by Morarji Desai, who had presented six budgets in a row as country’s Finance Minister about six decades ago.
Also Read: Budget expectations: Here’s what experts across sectors anticipate from the July budget
Since July 2019, when she became the country’s first full-time woman Finance Minister, Sitharaman has presented five complete budgets and one interim budget in February this year. She has already surpassed the five-budget streak of her predecessors, including Manmohan Singh, Arun Jaitley, P Chidambaram, and Yashwant Sinha besides matching Morarji Desai’s record of presented six budgets in a row.
Sitharaman, who took charge as country’s Finance Minister for the second term earlier this week, is likely to table full Union Budget 2024-25 in Parliament on July 22, according to the sources. This will be her seventh budget. This will also be first full budget of the newly-inducted third consecutive Union government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Also Read: Modi 3.0: As Nirmala Sitharaman back on FM’s chair, share market pundits bet on…
Morarji Desai, who served as country’s Finance Minister, tabled five full budgets and one interim budget from 1959 to 1964. Overall, Desai presented 10 budgets, highest by any Finance Minister of India.
Desai went on to become fourth Prime Minister of India between March 24, 1977 and July 28, 1979.
Before Sitharaman, late Arun Jaitley presented five consecutive budgets from 2014-15 to 2018-19. On February 1, 2019, Piyush Goyal, now the Union Commerce and Industry Minister, presented the interim budget for the fiscal year 2019-20.
After the 2019 general elections, Nirmala Sitharaman took charge as the Finance Minister, becoming the second woman to present the budget after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who tabled the budget for the financial year 1970-71.
Milestone Alert!
Livemint tops charts as the fastest growing news website in the world 🌏 Click here to know more.
3.6 Crore Indians visited in a single day choosing us as India’s undisputed platform for General Election Results. Explore the latest updates here!
Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.
Published: 14 Jun 2024, 12:20 PM IST