New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman completed up her fifth consecutive budget speech under 90 minutes – her shortest so far. She took 86 minutes. Last year, she clocked 92 minutes, which held the record for being the shortest. In 2021, she spoke for an hour and 50 minutes.
In 2020, she broke all records for making the longest budget speech in India’s history at 2 hours and 40 minutes. She was forced to cut it short and take a breather as she felt unwell. Sitharaman was seen sipping on what appeared to be electrolytes during the 2020 speech. The government has outlined seven priority areas in the last complete budget before next year’s general elections. The areas, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, are ‘inclusive development, reaching the last mile, infrastructure and investment, unleashing the potential, green growth, youth power and financial sector’.
This year’s Budget holds much significance as the country is scheduled to have the next Lok Sabha election in April-May 2024. The budget session of the Parliament began on Tuesday with the President’s address, followed by tabling of the Economic Survey for 2022-23. The formal exercise to prepare the annual Budget for the next financial year (2023-24) commenced on October 10. The Economic Survey said India’s GDP is expected to grow in the range of 6 to 6.8% in the coming financial year 2023-24. This is in comparison to the estimated 7% this fiscal and 8.7% in 2021-22.
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