new delhi finance minister nirmala sitharaman is the sixth minister in independent india to present five consecutive budget joining a select league of legends likes of manmohan singh arun jaitley and p chidambaramalso see budget 2023 livesitharamans budget for the fiscal year starting april 2023 is her fifth straight since 2019other ministers who have presented five straight annual financial statements include arun jaitley p chidambaram yashwant sinha manmohan singh and morarji desaiafter taking charge of the finance ministry in the modi government in 2014 jaitley presented five budgets in a row from 201415 to 201819it was in 2017 that jaitley departed from the colonialera tradition of presenting budget on the last working day of february to 1st of the monthpiyush goyal who was holding the additional charge of the ministry due to ill health of jaitley presented the interim budget or vote on account for 201920after the 2019 general elections in the modi 20 government sitharaman was given the finance portfoliounder sitharaman india has weathered the covid pandemic with an array of policy measures announced for the poor and continued its tag of the fastest growing major economy and a bright spot in world economyin 2019 sitharaman became the second woman to have presented the budget after indira gandhi who had presented the budget for the financial year 197071that year sitharaman did away with the traditional budget briefcase and instead went for a bahikhata with the national emblem to carry the speech and other documentscoveted club of five budgets in a rowjaitleys predecessor and congress p chidambaram in the upa government had presented five budgets in a row from 200405 to 200809in the bjpled atal bihari vajpayee government yashwant sinha as finance minister presented the interim and final budgets for 199899 after the general elections in 1999 sinha presented four budgets 19992000 to 200203it was under sinha that the time for presentation of the budget was changed to 11am from 5 pmduring narasimha rao government manmohan singh was given charge of the finance portfolio and he presented budgets from 199192 to 199596 singhs 199192 budget with a host of economic reforms to liberalise the economy gave a new direction to indiaformer prime minister morarji desai who holds the tag of presenting 10 budgets the maximum number by any finance minister had presented five of them in a row the five annual budgets were presented from 195960 to 196364 during his stint as finance minister