Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is poised to present the Union Budget for the fiscal year 2026-27 on February 1, 2026, a date that falls on a Sunday. This event will mark a significant personal milestone, as it will be her ninth consecutive Budget presentation. It will also serve as the second full Budget of the Modi 3.0 government, following the one presented in 2025.
A Date Shift for Faster Implementation
The tradition of presenting the Budget on February 1 is a relatively recent one. Until 2017, the Union Budget was traditionally presented on February 28. The Modi government decided to advance the date to ensure quicker parliamentary approval and enable the implementation of schemes from the very start of the new financial year on April 1. Previously, procedural delays often pushed the implementation of new policies to May or even June.
This year's Budget is anticipated to focus on sustaining India's economic growth momentum while potentially addressing the concerns of the middle class, which has been dealing with high taxes, elevated costs of living, and tightening household budgets.
Chasing a Historic Record
With Budget 2026, Nirmala Sitharaman moves closer to creating history. Having already presented eight consecutive Budgets, including the interim Budget in February 2024, she will become the only finance minister to have delivered nine consecutive Budgets under a single prime minister. She is now inching toward the all-time record held by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who presented 10 Union Budgets in his tenure as finance minister.
India's Budget Journey: Key Milestones
The Budget presentation in India has evolved significantly since independence. R.K. Shanmukham Chetty presented the first Union Budget of independent India on November 26, 1947.
For decades, a colonial-era practice saw the Budget being presented at 5 pm on the last working day of February. This timing aligned with business hours in London. It was in 1999 that then Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, shifted the presentation to 11 am, a convention that continues today.
Other notable record-holders in Budget presentations include:
- P. Chidambaram: Presented 9 Budgets across different tenures.
- Pranab Mukherjee: Presented 8 Budgets.
- Dr. Manmohan Singh: His 1991 Budget as finance minister is historic for launching India's economic liberalisation.
Records in Budget Speeches
Nirmala Sitharaman herself holds the record for the longest Budget speech. Her address on February 1, 2020, lasted for 2 hours and 40 minutes. In contrast, the shortest speech on record was delivered by Hirubhai Mulljibhai Patel in 1977, with his interim Budget speech containing only about 800 words.
As the nation awaits Budget 2026, all eyes will be on the finance minister's announcements, which are expected to balance fiscal prudence with populist measures to support key voter segments and fuel continued economic expansion.
