Union Budget FAQs 2022

The announcement of the Union Budget every year is one of the most important events in the country. The Budget affects every single individual in India. But it is not often that many tune in to watch the Budget speech. Here are some of the commonly asked questions that people have about the Budget Presentation.

When will the Union Budget 2022-2023 will be presented in the Parliament?

The Union Budget is scheduled to be presented on February 1, 2022 at 11 am in the Parliament. The Budget will be presented on the first day of the Parliamentary session, which is also known as the Budget Session.

Who will present the Union Budget 2022-2023?

The Union Budget is presented by the Minister of Finance. The current Union Minister of Finance is Nirmala Sitharaman, a BJP member of the Rajya Sabha and an economist.

How long is the speech?

The presentation of the Union Budget by the Finance Minister on average runs from 90 minutes to 120 minutes, though of course outliers do exist. While the shortest Budget speech was delivered by Hirubhai M Patel in 1977, when he announced the Interim Budget, Sitharaman holds the distinction of delivering the longest Union Budget speech.

Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2021-2022 over a period of 160 minutes, 2 hours and 40 minutes, during which she was not able to finish her speech and had to leave the last two pages. Sitharaman's speeches have erred on the longer side of the average, as in 2019 after speaking for 137 minutes, 2 hours and 17 minutes, she broke the previous record of the longest Union Budget speech.

The previous longest Union Budget Speech was delivered by Jaswant Singh in 2003, when he presented the budget for 135 minutes, 2 hours and 15 minutes. Despite the length of their speeches, the distinction of the most substance during a Union Budget Presentation goes to former PM Manmohan Singh, which he delivered during his tenure as FM in 1991. The iconic 1991 Budget, which started the period of liberalisation in the Indian economy and ended the license Raj, saw the longest speech in terms of words. It had 18,650 words.