New Delhi. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is going to make a record today. Nirmala Sitharaman will be the first Finance Minister of India to present the budget the most number of times. Earlier this record was in the name of former PM Morarji Desai. Nirmala Sitharaman has once again been entrusted with the Finance Ministry by PM Narendra Modi. In February, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the interim budget at the end of the second term of the Modi government. Now she is presenting the full budget for 2024-25. You can listen to the budget speech of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman by clicking on this link.
Nirmala Sitharaman is presenting the 7th full budget as Finance Minister. Earlier, Morarji Desai had presented 6 consecutive budgets including 1 interim. Morarji Desai had presented a total of 10 budgets during the governments of Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi. Nirmala Sitharaman equaled Morarji Desai’s record by presenting the budget for the sixth time in 2023. Now she will have the record of presenting 8 budgets including 1 interim. Talking about other finance ministers, Pranab Mukherjee had given 9 budgets as Finance Minister. Yashwant Rao Chavan, CD Deshmukh and Yashwant Sinha presented 7 budgets, but not consecutively. At the same time, Manmohan Singh and TT Krishnamachari presented 6-6 budgets in different years.
A big team of the Finance Ministry helps Nirmala Sitharaman in preparing the budget. This team includes the Finance Secretary, Revenue Secretary, Expenditure Secretary and other officials. The budget is printed in the Finance Ministry’s press itself. It is kept secret until the budget is presented. If the budget is leaked before presentation, the government has to resign. It is necessary to get the budget passed by the Lok Sabha. After discussion on the budget passed by the Lok Sabha, it is also approved after discussion in the Rajya Sabha. The provisions of the budget come into effect every year when the new financial year begins from April 1.