Union Budget 2026: Is Nirmala Sitharaman the longest serving finance minister?

Surpassing her own as well as others' records, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to present her ninth consecutive budget on February 1, effectively making her the longest serving finance minister in the country in terms of uninterrupted Budget presentations.

This feat is only matched by Morarji Desai, the once Congress-turned- Janata Party stalwart, who served as the finance minister of the country under various prime ministers. He holds the record of presenting the budget 10 times in the Parliament, however, not consecutively.

P Chidambaram, Manmohan Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Pranab Mukherjee also find a place among the 'budget' record holders in the country.

Chidambaram has presented the budget 9 times in the Parliament. He served as the finance minister for 8 years under 4 different stints.

Manmohan Singh, served as finance minister under the P V Narasimha Rao-led government and is credited with bringing the LPG i.e. Liberalisation Privatisation and Globalisation system to India. He presented 6 budgets in Parliament and served as the finance minister for 5 years.

He also held the portfolio in 2008 and 2012, during his tenure as prime minster.

C D Deshmukh, an economic statesman and India's fourth finance minister also figures among the high-achievers. After Sitharaman, Deshmukh holds the record for serving the second longest tenure as the finance minister of India.

Deshmukh, who presented budgets between 1951 and 1956 had tabled six full budgets and an interim budget. Two of Deshmukh’s budgets were before the constitution of the first Lok Sabha in 1952.

All about Sitharaman

After taking oath on May 31 2019 under PM Modi's leadership, Sitharaman's tenure as finance minister has spanned 6 years and 8 months.

She presented her maiden budget on July 5, 2019 and also holds the record for delivering the longest budget speech when she spoke for 2hrs and 42mins, while presenting the Union Budget for the 2020-21 financial year on February 1, 2020.

Not only known for setting and surpassing records, Sitharaman is also recognized for breaking hitherto norms and replacing them with new ones.

In 2019, she replaced the colonial 'budget briefcase' with a Bani Khata, a traditional Indian accounting ledger wrapped in red cloth. In 2021, she presented the first paperless budget on a tablet.