Countdown to the Budget

India's Finance Ministers

Who has presented the maximum number of Budgets in India?

Following the end of British Raj, since 1947, Independent India has seen 26 Finance Ministers. However, following the need of the hour, on some occasions some Prime Ministers themselves held the finance portfolio. Taking all this into consideration, so far India has witnessed 69 normal Annual Budgets, 12 interim Budgets and four special-occasion budgetary measures (mini-Budgets).

But the one person who has tabled maximum number of Budgets in India is Morarji Desai. Before becoming the Prime Minister of India, between 1977–80, Desai presented the Union Budget of India 10 times i.e. eight Annual Budgets and 2 vote on account (VOA) or Interim Budgets. In his first term as Finance Minister, Desai tabled 5 regular Budgets between 1959–60 to 1963–64 and 1 Interim Budget for 1962–63.

In his second term, he tabled 3 Annual Budgets from 1967–68 to 1969–70 and 1 VOA for 1967–68. In his second term as Finance Minister(regular and interim), during all the 4 Budgets, Morarji Desai was also holding the post of Deputy Prime Minister in the Indira Gandhi Cabinet.

On February 29 in 1964 and 1968, he became the only Finance Minister to present the Union Budget on his birthday.

Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, is the only person who could get closest to Morarji Desai in presenting the maximum numbers of Budgets — total 9. The other finance ministers in the league, presented seven budgets each. They were — Yashwant Sinha, Y.B. Chavan and C.D. Deshmukh. Followed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who tabled six Union Budgets (between 1991 and 1996), same as India’s 4th Finance Minister T.T. Krishnamachari (between 1956–1958 and from 1964–1966