Union
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her fourth consecutive budget in
the parliament on Tuesday. When she stood up in Lok Sabha to present the
2022-2023 budget the question on many minds was whether she would set another
record with the length of her speech. She did, presenting one of her shortest
budgets.

According to NDTV, Sitharaman
on Tuesday began her speech at 11.03 am and ended at 12:35 pm, speaking for 1
hour and 32 minutes. This was almost 16 minutes shorter than her 2021-2022
speech, which was one hour shorter than her 2020 speech. On February 1, 2020,
she delivered a speech that lasted for 2 hours 42 minutes.

Known
for her long Budget speeches, Sitharaman delivered the address for about 2
hours and 15 minutes in 2019, which was then the longest speech in Indian
history.

Also read: Congress calls budget ‘betrayal of middle class’ as tax slabs stay unchanged

Previously,
former Union Finance Minister Jaswant Singh held the record of reading out the
budget for two hours and 13 minutes in 2003 while Arun Jaitley spoke for two
hours and 10 minutes to present the budget in 2014.

Notably,
while the first part of the Union budget session of Parliament will be held
from January 31 to February 11, the second will take place from March 14 to
April 8, with nearly a month-long recess between both sessions.

Also read: Budget 2022: What’s cheaper, what’s dearer. Full list

Sitharaman,
while presenting the Union Budget, said that the country is expected to grow at
9.27 per cent in the coming year. With a focus on four pillars of development —
inclusive development, productivity enhancement, energy transition and climate
action — the Budget gives a blueprint of economy from India at 75 to India at
100, Sitharaman said.

The
Budget session of Parliament began on Monday with President Ram Nath Kovind’s
address to the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. After the address, Sitharaman tabled
the Economic Survey 2021-22 in Parliament, which probed the performance of each
and every sector of the economy.