Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who arrived at the Rashtrapati Bhavan wearing a red colour saree to call on President Draupadi Murmuwill present Union Budget 2023-24 on Wednesday. Sitharaman has set a record of being the sixth minister to present five consecutive Budget. She has joined a select league of leaders likes of Manmohan Singh, Arun Jaitley and P Chidambaram.
The Budget for the fiscal year starting April 2023 will be SItharaman’s fifth straight since 2019. Other ministers who have presented five straight annual financial statements include Arun Jaitley, P Chidambaram, Yashwant Sinha, Manmohan Singh and Morarji Desai, according to the news agency PTI report.
Sitharaman took charge of the finance portfolio in the Modi 2.0 government after the 2019 general elections. She took charge of the ministry from her predecessor former finance minister Arun Jaitley who presented five budgets in a row from 2014-15 to 2018-19. It was in 2017, that Jaitley departed from the colonial-era tradition of presenting Budget on the last working day of February to 1st of the month.
Under Sitharaman, India has weathered the Covid pandemic with an array of policy measures announced for the poor and continued its tag of the fastest growing major economy and a ‘bright spot’ in world economy.
In 2019, Sitharaman became the second woman to have presented the budget after Indira Gandhi, who had presented the budget for the financial year 1970-71.
That year, Sitharaman did away with the traditional budget briefcase and instead went for a ‘bahi-khata’ with the National Emblem to carry the speech and other documents.
Prominent leaders who presented Budget for five times in a row
Jaitley’s predecessor and Congress’ P Chidambaram in the UPA government had presented five budgets in a row from 2004-05 to 2008-09.
In the BJP-led Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government, Yashwant Sinha as finance minister presented the interim and final budgets for 1998-99. After the general elections in 1999, Sinha presented four budgets — 1999-2000 to 2002-03.
It was under Sinha that the Budget time presentation was changed to 11am from 5 pm. During Narasimha Rao Government, Manmohan Singh was given charge of the Finance portfolio and he continued to present budgets from 1991-92 to 1995-96. Singh’s 1991-92 Budget with sweeping economic reforms was aimed to liberalise the economy and offered a new direction to India.
Former Prime Minister Morarji Desai who holds the record of presenting 10 Budgets, the maximum number by any Finance Minister, had presented five of them in a row, the report added. The five annual budgets were presented from 1959-60 to 1963-64 during his stint as Finance Minister.