Union Budget 2026: How long was FM Nirmala Sitharaman’s 9th consecutive Budget speech?

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her ninth consecutive Union Budget on Sunday, February 1, for the financial year 2026-27. This marked the third full Budget of the Modi 3.0 government. According to the official Press Information Bureau video of the Budget speech, Sitharaman’s proposals lasted around 83 minutes or 1 hour 23 minutes and focused on reforms, growth, railways, roads connectivity, and ensuring that the dividends of growth reach farmers, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, and youth. The speech began at11 am and continued until 12:26 pm. The Finance Bill was formally tabled in Parliament after the finance minister ended her speech.

In 2025, Sitharaman’s Budget speech lasted 1 hour and 17 minutes, featuring significant relief measures for taxpayers. The 2024 interim Budget was notably shorter, with the Finance Minister completing her sixth consecutive Budget in just 56 minutes, making it the shortest speech of her tenure.

The 2023 Budget presentation lasted 87 minutes, while the 2022 speech ran for 92 minutes. Each year, the addresses highlighted fiscal reforms and sectoral allocations, but durations varied depending on policy announcements and parliamentary proceedings.

The 2021 Budget speech ran for 1 hour and 40 minutes and was India’s first paperless Budget. Sitharaman presented it using a tablet within a traditional ‘bahi-khata’ style pouch, signalling a blend of technology and tradition.

The 2025 speech duration stands in contrast to her longest-ever Budget speech in 2020, which ran for 2 hours and 42 minutes, making it the longest Budget speech in India's parliamentary history. In the speech she announced major policy measures including a new income tax regime and the proposed initial public offering of Life Insurance Corporation of India. She paused mid-way due to ill health, with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla reading the remaining two pages.

Her first Budget speech in 2019 lasted 2 hours and 17 minutes, among the longest on record. It was delivered in multiple languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Urdu, and Sanskrit, without a break, surpassing most predecessors in both length and multilingual presentation.

In comparison, the shortest Union Budget speech was delivered by Hirubhai M Patel in 1977-78, at around 800 words, during the Morarji Desai government. By word count, the longest speech remains that of Manmohan Singh in 1991, with 18,650 words. These records underscore the wide variation in duration and style of India’s Union Budgets over the years.