Interim Budget 2024: Nirmala Sitharaman delivers one of the shortest budget speeches

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the 2024 interim Budget on February 1

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday made her shortest-ever budget speech in parliament. The finance minister, who figured prominently in the list of lengthy budget speech makers in history, wrapped up her interim budget speech in a little under an hour, at 58 minutes. The speech had 5,246 words.

With this, Sitharaman became the first woman to hold the finance portfolio on a full-time basis and is the second finance minister to present six consecutive budgets. Former finance minister and ex-prime minister Morarji Desai was the first to deliver six straight budgets.

Both the ministers tabled five full budgets and an interim one.

VIDEO | Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman begins her budget speech.#Budget2024WithPTI pic.twitter.com/dc2dMeUD0M

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) February 1, 2024

The interim budget Sitharaman presented is for the financial year 2024-25 as the government faces a general election this year, in April-May. A full budget for the financial year 24-25 will be tabled in July by the incoming government -- whether a new administration or a re-elected one.

Longest budget speeches in historyNirmala Sitharaman's budget speech in 2020 was by far the longest, lasting two hours and 40 minutes. Key announcements in the 2020 budget included new income tax slabs and LIC IPO.

In 2019, her speech lasted for two hours and 17 minutes. It marked the first budget presentation by India's first full-time woman finance minister. Chief announcements included a 10-point vision for the decade, benefits for MSMEs and start-ups, and opening pre-filing of income-tax returns, among others.

Read more: Budget Speech: If ChatGPT were Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman's budget speech would be like this