Union Budget: Longest and shortest Finance Minister speeches in Indian history

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Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget speech on Saturday lasted one hour and 18 minutes. She is the country's only finance minister to present eight Union Budgets and ahe also holds the record for the longest Budget speech in history.

Here's a look at some of the notable budget speeches in India's history:

India's first budget as an independent country was presented in November 1947 by Shanmukham Chetty, who was then the finance minister. Over the years, his successors have given budget speeches in their styles -- some really long, others very brief.

Nirmala Sitharaman's Union 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.

The year 2019 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.

Sitharaman's speech that year lasted two hours and 17 minutes.

Jaswant Singh's 2003 Budget speech was two hours and 13 minutes long. In his speech, Singh proposed universal health insurance, announced e-filing of income tax returns, and reductions in excise and customs duty on certain items.

In the 2014 Union Budget, the government increased the tax exemption slab from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh, raised foreign direct investment (FDI) in defence to 49 per cent and announced that more All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) will be set in the coming years.

The Budget was presented by Arun Jaitley, in a speech lasting two hours and 10 minutes.

Manmohan Singh (1991) - 18,650 words

Arun Jaitley (2018) - 18, 604 words

Hirubhai M. Patel's interim budget speech in 1977 - 800 words