Nirmala Sitharaman to present record ninth consecutive Union Budget on 1 February

FINANCE Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to present the record ninth consecutive Union Budget on 1 February 2026, which is expected to include several reform measures aimed at supporting and boosting India's economic growth amid uncertain geopolitical conditions.

This geopolitical volatility is fueled by the Trump administration's imposition of 50% tariffs on India last year. The US President also threatened to escalate his trade war with European allies over their opposition to a US takeover of Greenland; however, he later reversed his stance.

The upcoming Budget will bring Sitharaman closer to matching the record of 10 budgets presented by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, though his were delivered over different time periods.

Which FM presented the most number of Budgets?

Desai presented six budgets during his first stint as the finance minister between 1959-1964, and another four budgets during his second term from 1967 to 1969. If Sitharaman presents one more Budget after this, she would equal this long-standing record in India’s Budget history.

Meanwhile, former finance ministers P Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee had presented nine and eight budgets, respectively, while different prime ministers served the country.

Sitharaman will continue to hold the unique record of presenting the highest budgets consecutively — nine in a row under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. So far, she has presented eight straight budgets, including an interim one in February 2024, making her the longest-serving finance minister for uninterrupted Budget presentations.

She was appointed India's first full-time woman finance minister in 2019 when Prime Minister Modi won a decisive second term. After Modi returned to power in 2024 for a third term, Sitharaman retained her position in the Finance Ministry.

Longest budget speech in India's history

Sitharaman also holds the record for the longest budget speech in India’s history. In 2020, her budget speech lasted two hours and 40 minutes. The presentation began at 11 AM and continued till 1:40 PM.

At the time, she cut her speech short with two pages remaining, as she felt unwell. Later, Speaker Om Birla completed the speech.

However, her speech still fell short of the one given by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 1991 in terms of word count. Former PM Manmohan Singh’s speech as Finance Minister had 18,650 words.

The Union Budget for the financial year 2025-26 will start at 11 AM on 1 February 2026.