FM Nirmala Sitharaman's 2023 Budget speech was 87 minutes; See her longest and shortest speeches

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her Budget speech in the Parliament on February 1, 2023, outlining the government's financial plans and policies for the upcoming fiscal year.

The Budget speech is an important event in the Indian economy as it lays out the government's revenue and expenditure plans and sets the tone for economic growth and development.

This year, the duration of Sitharaman’s Budget speech was her shortest ever at 87 minutes long. Interestingly, Sitharaman holds the record for delivering the longest Budget speech in 2020 when she spoke for 2 hours and 40 minutes.

Also Read: Budget 2023: Indian Railways allocated Rs 2.4 lakh crore, highest ever since FY2014

During the speech, Sitharaman addressed various facets of the Indian economy, including job creation, agriculture, healthcare, and infrastructure development.

In a major relief to the middle class and salaried class, the government has hiked the income tax exemption limit by Rs 2 lakh from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 7 lakh. 

She further added that the government's fiscal deficit has been revised to 6.4 per cent of the GDP and is likely to hit 5.9 per cent next year. The budgetary allocation towards capital investment will rise by around 33 per cent to Rs 10 lakh crore using gross budgetary support and grants of Rs 3.7 lakh crore have also been announced for infrastructure buildout.

Things like mobile phones, televisions and electric vehicles are likely to get cheaper, whereas gold, silver, diamonds and cigarettes will be getting more expensive.

Also read: Budget 2023: New tax regime is now the default tax regime, FM Sitharaman says