How long was Nirmala Sitharaman's 9th consecutive Budget speech?

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has presented the Union Budget for the year 2026-2027, speaking for a total of 1 hour 25 minutes, making it a 85-minute long speech. The finance minister began her Budget 2026 speech at sharp 11 am in the Lok Sabha and continued until 12:25 pm. The Finance Bill was formally tabled in Parliament after the finance minister ended her speech.

Nirmala Sitharaman have typically ran for 90-120 minutes in the nine budgets that she has presented, but in 2020, she presented her longest speech, speaking for two hours and 42 minutes.

In 2025 Union Budget presentation, the finance minister spoke for 1 hour 14 minutes and in 2019, the finance minister gave a 2 hours 17 minutes-long speech in Parliament. Her shortest was one hour in 2024.

What did she speak about in Union Budget 2026? Key highlights

1. Nirmala Sitharaman spoke about three kartavyas to deliver on the sankalp of focusing on the poor, underprivileged and the disadvantaged – (i) To accelerate and sustain economic growth, by enhancing productivity and competitiveness, and building resilience to volatile global dynamics; (ii) to fulfil aspirations of our people and build their capacity; and (iii) to ensure that every family, community, region and sector has access to resources, amenities and opportunities for meaningful participation.
2. To develop India as a global Biopharma manufacturing hub, Nirmala Sitharaman has proposed the Biopharma SHAKTI with an outlay of ₹10,000 crores over the next 5 years to build an ecosystem for domestic production of biologics and biosimilars. Also Read | Bharat Dynamics, Data Patterns to BEL: Why defence stocks fell after Budget 2026 announcements?
3. The Centre will launch India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 2.0 to produce equipment and materials, design fullstack Indian IP, and fortify supply chains.
4. An extension of basic customs duty exemption on capital goods used for manufacturing lithium-ion cells for battery storage has been announced.
5. The government has also proposed  tax holiday till 2047 for foreign companies that provide cloud services to customers worldwide by using data centres in the country.
6. Public CapEx to be increased it to ₹12.2 lakh crore. Also Read | Budget 2026: Customs duties cut, duty-free export timelines extended
7. The finance ministry has announced a scheme to support States in establishing five Regional Medical Hubs, in partnership with the private sector. “These Hubs will provide diverse job opportunities for health professionals including doctors and AHPs,” Nirmala Sitharaman said.
8. The government will also support states in creating 5 University Townships in the vicinity of major industrial and logistic corridors. “In Higher Education STEM institutions, prolonged hours of study and laboratory work pose some challenges for girl students. Through VGF/capital support, 1 girls’ hostel will be established in every district,” she said.
9. Sitharaman also announced development of seven High-Speed Rail corridors between cities as ‘growth connectors’ to promote environmentally sustainable passenger systems.
10. Sitharaman also proposed to extend time available for revising returns from December 31 to up to March 31 with the payment of a nominal fee.
11. The finance ministry also proposed to stagger the timeline for filing of tax returns. Individuals with ITR 1 and ITR 2 returns will continue to file till July 31 and non-audit business cases or trusts are proposed to be allowed time till August 31.
12. TDS on the sale of immovable property by a non-resident is proposed to be deducted and deposited through resident buyer’s PAN based challan instead of requiring TAN.

(With agency inputs)