Union Budget 2024: Who Has Presented Most Number Of Budgets?

The Union Budget for 2024-2025 will be presented on July 23, 2024, at 11 am in the Parliament. This will be the first Budget by the BJP-led NDA government since it was re-elected last month. President Droupadi Murmu has officially approved the budget session to begin on July 22 and continue until August 12.

This year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will become the first finance minister in India's history to deliver seven consecutive budgets. She will surpass the record previously held by Morarji Desai, who presented six consecutive budgets between 1959 and 1963.

Who has presented the most number of budgets?

Former Prime Minister Morarji Desai holds the record for presenting the most budgets in the country's history. He has presented a total of 10 budgets so far, a feat yet to be surpassed. Desai presented his first budget in 1959 and continued consecutively for five years, with five full budgets and one interim budget presented between 1959 and 1963. After four years, he presented another interim budget in 1967, followed by three full budgets in 1967, 1968, and 1969, presenting a total of 10 budgets.

P Chidambaram, former Finance Minister of India, is in the second spot, having presented the budget on nine occasions. Mr Chidambaram first presented the Budget in 1997, during the United Front government led by Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda. He went on to present the Budget several times during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) governments, from 2004 to 2014, with the exception of a three-year period when he served as the Minister of Home Affairs. 

Former President Pranab Mukherjee presented eight Budgets during his time as Finance Minister. This is the third-highest number of budget presentations in Indian history. Mukherjee first presented the Budget in 1982, and his last Budget presentation was in 2012.

Nirmala Sitharaman has been presenting the budget since 2019. The 2024 Union Budget presentation will be her seventh consecutive budget presentation, the first in Indian history.