Budget 2022: At 8989 words and 92 minutes, it’s Sitharaman’s shortest ever speech

New Delhi, Feb 01: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday delivered the Budget 2022-23 with her shortest budget speech of approximately 8989 words so far. Sitharaman started the speech at 11:00 am and concluded at 12:30 pm.

She spoke for one hour and 30 minutes, making it the shortest among the budget speeches that generally go for about 2 hours at least.

Sitharaman, who also made the second paperless budget presentation as she read the speech from a tab, also quoted a verse from Mahabharat's Shanti Parva.

Sitharaman holds the record for delivering the longest speech when she spoke for 2 hours and 42 minutes while presenting the Union Budget 2020-21 on February 1, 2020.

With two pages still remaining, she had to cut short her speech as she felt unwell. She asked the Speaker to consider the remaining part of the speech as read. During the course of this speech, she broke her own record of July 2019 - her maiden Budget - when she had spoken for 2 hours and 17 minutes.

The shortest Budget speech in history consisted of just 800 words. It was the interim Budget that was presented by former Finance Minister Hirubhai Mulljibhai Patel in 1977.