The Union Budget speech is likely to begin at 11 am with finance minister’s address. On June 23, Sitharaman presented the full budget for 2024 in a paperless format, which is being followed since2021. The presentation was made in 85 minutes for minutes.
What is the average duration of the budget speech?
The duration of Budget speeches have varied over the years. It typically ranges from 90 minutes to 120 minutes. However, speeches have exceeded over 120 minutes and have been much shorter than 90 minutes on several occasions.
Longest Budget speech
Sitharaman’s 2020 Budget speech was the longest in India’s history, lasting around 162 minutes. Despite speaking for such a long time, she couldn’t complete the final two pages and had to cut the speech short.
Sitharaman is followed by Jaswant Singh in 2003. He spoke for 133 minutes. In his speech, Singh had proposed universal health insurance, announced e-filing of income tax returns, and reductions in excise and customs duty on certain items.
Narendra Modi government’s first budget was presented by Arun Jaitley in 2014. He announced a tax exemption slab from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh and raised foreign direct investment (FDI) in defence to 49 per cent. Jaitley took two hours and 10 minutes to announce the budget.
Longest budget speech by words
In terms of word count, Manmohan Singh’s Budget speech remains the longest with 18,650 words.
Shortest budget speech
The shortest speech, consisting of only 800 words, was delivered by HM Patel in 1977 for the interim Budget. Sitharaman’s shortest Budget presentation came on February 1 and lasted only 58 minutes.
