Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union budget 2026 on Sunday, delivering a 1 hour 25 minutes long speech, falling short of her own record set in 2020 when she delivered the longest speech ever.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday scripted history as she presented a record ninth consecutive Budget, delivering a 1 hour 25 minutes long speech, falling short of her own record set in 2020 when she delivered the longest speech ever.
Last year, the finance minister spoke for 1 hour and 14 minutes.
This has taken Sitharaman closer to the record of 10 budgets that were presented by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai over different time periods. Desai presented six budgets during his tenure as finance minister from 1959 to 1964, and four budgets between 1967 and 1969.
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Former finance ministers P Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee had presented nine and eight budgets, respectively, under different prime ministers.
Sitharaman, however, will continue to hold the record of presenting the maximum number of budgets on the trot -- nine straight budgets under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
She was appointed as India's first full-time woman finance minister in 2019 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a decisive second term. After Modi came back to power in 2024 for the third time, Sitharaman continued to retain her finance portfolio.
Sitharaman took charge of the Finance Ministry on May 31, 2019, and has steered the economy through the Covid-19 pandemic and geopolitical turmoil, making India the fastest-growing major economy in the world.
Sitharaman completed six years and eight months in office on January 31, 2026. On February 1, she will present a record ninth budget in a row.
LONGEST BUDGET SPEECH: Sitharaman holds the record for the longest budget speech when her presentation on February 1, 2020, lasted two hours and 40 minutes. At the time, she cut short her speech with two pages still remaining.
SHORTEST BUDGET SPEECH: Hirubhai Mulljibhai Patel's interim Budget speech in 1977 is so far the shortest at just 800 words.
LONGEST SPEECH BY WORD COUNT: Measured by word count, the longest Union Budget speech was delivered by former finance minister Manmohan Singh in 1991. Running to 18,650 words, it still stands as the most extensive Budget address ever in this regard. Close behind is the 2018 Budget speech by former finance minister Arun Jaitley, which contained 18,604 words, making it the second-longest speech by word count.
