Union Budget 2026: When was the first budget presented, which FM holds record? Here are some fascinating facts

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the union budget 2026-27 on Sunday, 1 February 2026 in Parliament. Crucial economic announcements are expected to be made for which the session started on January 28 and will conclude on January 13. This will be Sitharaman's ninth consecutive budget, which is a record. With this she also inches closer to presenting the maximum number of budgets (10) held in the name of former Prime Minister Morarji Desai.

The annual budget was first presented in India in 1921 in the first session of the Central Legislative Assembly. In independent India, the Union Budget used to be presented on the last working day of February. However, in 2017 the then finance minister Arun Jaitley broke this colonial-era practice by presenting it on February 1 which has now become the norm. Also, until 1999, budget used to be announced at 5 pm, instead of the present slot of 11 am.

Let's take a brief look at the history of budget presentation in India.

Budget origin

The word budget comes from a French word, Bougette, which means leather briefcase. This is now you understand why finance ministers over the years have been seen holding it at Parliament on the budget day. The tradition was started by United Kingdom and later adopted by India. The first budget box, a wooden one with the Queen's monogram embossed in gold on it, was designed in 1860 for then Chancellor William Ewart Gladstone. UK has since stuck with the red Gladstone bag but in India there isn't any particular colour used for the briefcase.

First Union Budget by Shanmukham Chetty

The first Union Budget of independent India was presented on November 26, 1947 by RK Shanmukham Chetty, the first finance minister of the country. Notably, he was not a member of the Congress but an industrialist and erstwhile diwan of Cochin state. He had carried the trademark briefcase for the budget presentation in the Parliament.

First united-India budget

In 1949-50, John Mathai succeeded Shanmukham Chetty as the finance minister and presented the first united-India budget. Mathai did not follow the usual method of presenting the budget (reading it out), instead he circulated papers with budget details, making it easier to understand for the parliamentarians.

Who has presented how many budgets?

Former finance minister Morarji Desai presented 10 budgets - between 1959 and 1969 - the maximum by any finance minister of the country.

Former finance minister P Chidambaram has also presented nine Union budgets, first one being on March 19, 1996, during the United Front government led by Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda.

Pranab Mukherjee with eight budget presentations stands third in the list. Yashwant Sinha, Yashwantrao Chavan and CD Deshmukh have presented seven budgets each while Manmohan Singh, who also went on to become the prime minister of the country presented six union budgets.