Chidambaram to present 7th Budget on Feb 29

In the North Block, action is in full swing and the entry of all "unwanted" persons - that includes the media - have been barred to ensure that nothing about the budget is leaked.

Since it will be the last full budget of the UPA government in this term, there are lots of expectations from the Finance Minister.

But it is the late Morarji Desai who still holds the privilege of presenting the maximum number of eight full and two interim budgets in his political career.

The budgets presented by Desai included five annual budgets and an interim budget during his first stint and one interim budget and three final budgets in the second tenure when he was both the Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister.

He tabled annual budgets for the years from 1959-60 to 1963-64 and the interim budget for 1962-63. Again, in 1967 Morarji Desai presented the budget. He is the only finance minister who presented the Budget on his birthday, which fell on February 29, 1968.

After he resigned, Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister, took over the Finance Ministry to become the only woman to hold the portfolio.