Nirmala Sitharaman’s 6th Historic Interim Budget Presentations Equals Morarji Desai’s Record
Finance Minister of India, Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to present the Interim Budget 2024 in Parliament on Thursday, 1st Feb. As of now, she has presented five full budgets and this time she will present her sixth Interim budget. The reports state that Nirmala Sitharaman will equal the record of Morarji Desai, the former Prime Minister of India. As we already mentioned, she has presented the budget since July 2019. She is known to be the first full-time female finance minister of India. With her sixth interim budget, she will surpass the records of previous finance ministers including Manmohan Singh, Yashwant Sinha and P Chidambaram. All these former Finance Ministers had presented 5 budgets straightway and Nirmala Sitharaman has joined this league. She surpassed the records of her predecessors.
Why Nirmala Sitharaman’s Record Is Equal To Morarji Desai?
Just like Morarji Desai, current FM Nirmala Sitharaman set the record of presenting the 6th Union Budget of India in a row. The main similarity is the pattern she has followed, Nirmala Sitharaman has presented five annual budgets so far and on Thursday, 1st Feb she has represented the 6th “Interim Budget”. The Interim Budget 2024 is presented in “paperless form”. She carried a digital tablet in her hand, before heading towards the Parliament which she is using to present the Union Budget of India. Before presenting the Interim Budget, she posed outside the Ministry of Finance in New Delhi where she was holding a red color digital tablet.
Former Finance Ministers Who Presented Union Budget of India In Rows
With her sixth Interim Budget presentation, she equalled the record of former Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister. Now, she is the only female and second Finance Minister who presented the Budget 6 times. She held the position on 31st May 2019 and since then she has been actively working. After Indira Gandhi, she became the second woman who has presented the Union Budget of India.
1.Morarji Desai
Speaking about the record of Morarji Desai, Between 1959 and 1964, the former Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, he has presented 5 full budgets and 1 interim budget. Apart from that, he holds the record of presenting 10 budgets which is the maximum number of presenting the budgets while managing the finance portfolio.
2.Manmohan Singh
The former Finance Minister of India had presented 5 full budgets and 1 interim budget.
3.Arun Jaitely
When the Modi Government first time came to power, Arun Jaitley was appointed as Finance Minister who presented 5 full budgets in a row.
4.Piyush Goyal
After Arun Jaitely, Piyush presented the interim budget on 1st Feb 2019.
5.Nirmala Sitharaman
After the presentation of the interim budget of Piyush Goyal in 2019, Sitharaman became the Finance Minister 2019 and presented her first annual budget.
What Is Interim Budget and Why It is Presented?
Most of the time, the Finance Minister presents the annual budget but during the time of the general elections, the existing FM needs to present an interim budget. It is basically a vote-on-account that gives the authority to the existing government to spend a certain amount of money till a new government comes into full force after the April-May Lok Sabha elections.
What announcement has been made in the Interim Budget 2024?
During the presentation of the Interim Budget 2024, FM Sitharaman declared that no changes would be made in tax rates for both direct and indirect taxes. Not even in import duties.