E-Paper
Budget 2023: Sitharaman joins league of Manmohan Singh, Jaitley for this record
Nirmala Sitharaman assumed the charge of finance ministry in the Modi 2.0 government and has been at the helm of affairs since then.
Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has joined a select league of ministers to present five consecutive federal budgets in independent India. Sitharaman is only the sixth finance minister to do so, joining the league of ministers like Manmohan Singh, Arun Jaitley and P Chidambaram. Sitharaman's budget for the fiscal year starting April 2023 is her fifth straight since 2019.
The other finance ministers who presented the annual budget for five consecutive years are Arun Jaitley, P Chidambaram, Yashwant Sinha, Manmohan Singh and Morarji Desai.
Jaitley presented five budgets in a row from 2014-15 to 2018-19 after taking charge of the crucial ministry in the Modi Government in 2014. The interim budget for 2019-20 was presented by Piyush Goyal who was holding the additional portfolio owing to the ill health of Jaitley.
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Sitharaman assumed the charge of the finance ministry in the Modi 2.0 government and has been at the helm of affairs since then. Under Sitharaman, India weathered the Covid pandemic with an array of policy measures announced for the poor and continued its tag of the fastest-growing major economy and a 'bright spot' in the world economy.
In 2019, Sitharaman became the second woman to have presented the budget after Indira Gandhi, who had presented the budget for the financial year 1970-71.
Congress leader P Chidambaram in the UPA government had presented five budgets in a row from 2004-05 to 2008-09.
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In the NDA-led Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, Yashwant Sinha presented the interim and final budgets for 1998-99. After the general elections in 1999, Sinha presented four budgets – 1999-2000 to 2002-03.
During the Narasimha Rao government, Manmohan Singh was given charge of the finance portfolio and he presented budgets from 1991-92 to 1995-96. Singh's 1991-92 Budget with a host of economic reforms to liberalise the economy, gave a new direction to India.
Former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who holds the tag of presenting 10 Budgets, the maximum number by any finance minister, had presented five of them in a row. The five annual budgets were presented from 1959-60 to 1963-64 during his stint as finance minister.
(With PTI inputs)
