Union Budget 2023: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday made big promises for various sectors as well as to regular tax-payers in less than 90 minutes. The Finance Minister completed her fifth consecutive budget speech in just 87 minutes. This also happens to be her and India’s shortest budget speech ever. Sitharaman opened the budget speech this year with “This is the first Budget in Amrit Kaal,” and went on to add that inclusive development is Narendra Modi’s government’s No 1. priority.
She spoke for 92 minutes while delivering last year’s budget speech and an hour and 50 minutes sharp in 2021.
In 2020, however, she broke all records for making the longest budget speech in India’s history at 2 hours and 40 minutes. She had to cut short her speech due to illness. During her speech, she was seen taking a break and sipping on electrolytes.
Sitharaman delivered her maiden budget speech for 2019-2020 the financial year 2019 when she spoke for two hours and 17 minutes.
The longest budget speech in terms of a maximum number of words was delivered by former prime minister Manmohan Singh in his 1991 speech under the Narasimha Rao government. The financial statement had 18,650 words, while former finance minister Arun Jaitley’s 2018 budget speech under the Narendra Modi government had a total of 18,604 words. In 1977, then finance minister Hirubhai Mulljibhai Patel set the record for the shortest budget speech with a total of 800 words.
