Interim Budget 2024: Nirmala Sitharaman Set To Match Morarji Desai’s Record

Finance Minister Nirmala Sithraman is going to present her sixth consecutive Budget on February 1. She is set to achieve a rare milestone becoming only the second Finance Minister in the country to have presented the Union Budget for six consecutive years after Morarji Desai.  

Ms Sitharaman has been at the helm of the finance ministry since July 2019 and is the first full-time woman Finance Minister of the country. She has already presented five full Budgets and this will be her first Interim Budget.

After the presentation of the Interim Budget, she will surpass the records of her predecessors like Manmohan Singh, Arun Jaitley, P Chidambaram and Yashwant Sinha, all of whom presented five full Budgets in a row.

Morarji Desai, who went on to become Prime Minister, had presented five annual Budgets and one Interim Budget between 1959 and 1964. He also holds the rare achievement of presenting a total of 10 budgets, the highest by any Finance Minister of India.

After the 2019 general elections, Nirmala Sitharaman took charge of the finance portfolio, becoming the second woman to present the Budget after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the financial year 1970-71.

This year, the government is going to present the Interim Budget as the Lok Sabha elections are going to be held in April-May. The Interim Budget will help manage the government’s expenses for the transition period until the new government takes over. The full Budget for the financial year 2024-25 is expected to be presented by the new government that will come to power following the general elections in 2024.

To catch Finance Minister Sitharaman’s Budget speech live, tune in to Sansad TV and DD News. The live telecast will also be available on the official YouTube channel of the Press Information Bureau. The Budget presentation can be watched live on NDTV 24×7 and all channels of the network.

For a digital experience, you can also access Budget 2024 documents through the Union Budget Mobile App. The app, in English and Hindi, can be downloaded on Android, iOS, or from the Union Budget Web Portal.