New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Pranab
Mukherjee today presented his fifth budget in Parliament today
but Morarji Desai holds the record of doing so 10 times.
Mukherjee, who is holding the portfolio for the second
time after his first stint in 1982-1984, is the first and only
Finance Minister from West Bengal.
He is behind Yashwant Sinha, who presented seven
budgets, and C D Deshmukh and P Chidambaram, who did it six
times each.
Bihar's Sinha, who was finance minister during a brief
period of 13 days in 1991, retained the portfolio during
1998-99 and 1999-2002 and presented five final and two interim
budgets.
However, Chidambaram from Tamil Nadu, which also
produced seven finance ministers, and Maharashtra's Deshmukh
had the opportunity of presenting Union budget six times
during their tenures (1996-98, 2004-08) and (1950-56),
respectively.
Before becoming prime minister, Manmohan Singh
(Punjab) had also presented five budgets (four final and one
interim) during 1991-96. He was followed by C Subramaniam who
got the opportunity four times from 1975-1977.
However, Y B Chavan, who held the portfolio during
1971-75 presented three budgets, while India's first FM R K
Shanmukham Chetty (1947-1948), John Mathai (1949-50, 1950-51),
Ramaswamy Venkataraman (1980-1982), VP Singh (1985-1987) and
Jaswant Singh (2003-2004) got the opportunity two times each.
-PTI
First Published: Friday, February 26, 2010, 18:49