New Delhi, February 1: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday broke the record of the longest Budget speech in history. However, the Finance Minister left the speech incomplete due to health issues. Sitharaman spoke for 161 minutes which is 2 hours and 41 minutes longest (duration-wise) while presenting the budget today. As per records, the longest budget speech before Sitharaman's speech was 2 hours 17 minutes. While presenting the Union Budget in the Parliament on Saturday, Sitharaman reiterated that the fundamentals of Indian economy are strong and inflation has been contained.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said maybe this was the longest Budget speech in history but it had nothing, it was hollow. "The main issue facing is unemployment. I didn't see any strategic idea that would help our youth get jobs. I saw tactical stuff but no central idea. It describes govt well, lot of repetition,rambling-it is mindset of govt, all talk, but nothing happening", he said. New Income Tax Rates And Slabs For 2020-21.

The Congress party said though it was the longest budget speech, it was most lacklustre. "After Acche Din, New India, it appears govt also abandoned USD 5 trillion economy target", the party said. "Budget full of piecemeal measures, repackaged schemes, jugglery of tax slabs and no real solutions to solve economic crisis", the party added. Meanwhile, Congress leader Anand Sharma was quoted by PTI saying that the budget is insipid, lacks stimulus for growth and it has no clear roadmap for job creation.

Ahead of her second budget speech, Sitharaman paid homage to late and former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and also quoted his speech on GST that "it will be an India where the Centre and states will work together unanimously towards harmony". She said that the government has pulled out 271 million people out of poverty between 2006-2016.

In a major relief to the common man, the government on Saturday announced to raise the insurance cover on bank deposits to Rs 5 lakh from the current Rs 1 lakh. This comes as a major relief for depositors, as under the DICGC norms each depositor in a bank was insured up to Rs 1 lakh for both the principal and interest amount on deposits held in a particular bank.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 01, 2020 02:29 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).