New Delhi, January 30: The Union Budget for 2020-21 will be presented on Saturday, February 1. Like every year, expectations are high from the finance minister. The tradition of presenting a budget is an integral exercise in India's democracy. On the budget day, everyone is glued to the news channels for listening to the budget. Over the years, the budget speeches by the finance ministers have assumed a lot of importance. Union Budget 2020 Expectations: Hike in Import Duty on 300 Non-Essential Goods Likely in Nirmala Sitharaman's Bahi Khata Apart From Curb on Duty-Free Liquor.

The specialty of finance budgets in India is that apart from the numbers and hard facts, the finance ministers also use poetry, proverbs and many other tools to make the speech interesting for those watching and listening to the budget speech. Days before the budget, we bring the five longest budgets read out by finance ministers of India. Income Tax Slabs in Budget 2020: Will Nirmala Sitharaman Announce 5 Percent Tax Rate For Income Upto Rs 7 Lakh?

1. Nirmala Sitharaman in 2019

In the year 2019, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman delivered the longest budget speech in independent India's history. Sitharaman's speech while presenting the previous budget clocked 2 hours and 15 minutes. She beat former Finance Minister Jaswant Singh's speech by two minutes.

2. Jaswant Singh in 2003

Former Finance Minister Jaswant Singh's budget speech clocked 2 hours and 13 minutes in the year 2003. It became the longest recorded budget speech in India's history, until Nirmala Sitharaman's speech in 2019.

3. Arun Jaitley in 2014

While Nirmala Sitharaman holds the record for the longest budget speech in India's history, when it comes to word count and paragraphs, late BJP leader and former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley hold the distinction for having the most number of paragraphs in his budget speech. In his first budget speech presented in 2014, Jaitley readout 253 paragraphs and his speech lasted 2 hours and 10 minutes.

4. Pranab Mukherjee

Former Finance minister and President Pranab Mukherjee's name comes after Arun Jaitley in terms of paragraphs and words. His speeches consisted of a total of 202 paragraphs in his speeches. He presented the budget eight times.

5. P Chidambaram

Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram presented the budget a total of nine times. His speeches consisted of a total of 173 paragraphs on an average.

The other finance ministers with longest budget speeches are Manmohan Singh, R Venkataraman, Haribhai M Patel, Yashwantrao Chavan, TT Krishnamachari and Morarji R. Desai.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 30, 2020 07:04 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).