Longest & Shortest Budget Speeches: From Sitharaman’s Record to Manmohan Singh’s Epic

As Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman prepares to present Union Budget 2026 on February 1—a rare Sunday session—interest is growing not just in policy announcements but also in the historical length of Budget speeches. Sitharaman, who will deliver her ninth consecutive Budget (a new record after eight in 2025), has already etched her name in parliamentary history with the longest-ever speech by time.

Her 2020-21 Budget presentation lasted an unprecedented 2 hours and 42 minutes, surpassing her own previous record of 2 hours 17 minutes set in 2019. The marathon 2020 speech introduced a new income tax regime and the LIC IPO but was cut short for Sitharaman due to illness, with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla reading the final pages. By contrast, her shortest effort came in the 2024 interim Budget, lasting just 56 minutes.

Before Sitharaman, the longest durations belonged to Jaswant Singh (2 hours 13 minutes in 2003) and Arun Jaitley (2 hours 10 minutes in 2014). The shortest speech on record remains Hirubhai M. Patel’s interim Budget for 1977-78 under the Morarji Desai government—delivered in roughly 800 words.

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When measured by word count, former Prime Minister and then-Finance Minister Manmohan Singh holds the top spot. His landmark 1991 Budget speech—unveiling sweeping economic reforms—contained 18,650 words, making it the most verbose in India’s history. Arun Jaitley’s 2018 Budget follows closely with 18,604 words.

These extremes reflect how Budget speeches have evolved: from concise interim addresses to detailed policy roadmaps shaped by economic crises, reforms, and political contexts. Sitharaman’s upcoming presentation will add another chapter to this tradition, with markets watching closely for fiscal signals on a special trading day.

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