List of Finance Ministers of India

Ministry of Finance is one of the senior-most offices in the Union Cabinet of government of India. The Finance Minister is responsible for the fiscal policy of the government. Having knowledge about the head of the Ministry of Finance, their term of office and the political parties they relate to is important for aspirants taking the competitive exams. In this article we will draft the list of finance ministers we had since independence to present incumbent Finance Minister.

R.K. Shanmukham Chetty was the first Finance Minister of independent India and also presented the first Union Budget. Indira Gandhi was the first female Finance Minister, although she held the post for one year i.e., from 1970 – 1971. The current Finance Minister of India is Nirmala Sitharam, which makes her the second female to hold such a prestigious position. She took hold of the office on 31st May, 2019.

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Major duty of the Finance Minister is to present the annual Union Budget in Parliament, which presents the government’s plan for taxation and spending in the coming financial year. Through the Budget, the finance minister also outlines the allocations to different ministries and departments. Occasionally, she/he is assisted by the Minister of State for Finance and the lower-ranked Deputy Minister of Finance. The Budget or annual financial statement is presented every year by the Finance Minister of the country.

List of Finance Ministers of India

Below tabulated is the list of Finance Minsters of India from the year 1946 till present.

Finance Minister	Term of Office		Political Party
Liaquat Ali Khan	October 29, 1946	August 14, 1947	All-India Muslim League
R. K. Shanmukham Chetty	15 August, 1947	17 August, 1948	Indian National Congress
K. C. Neogy	1949	1949
John Mathai	22 September 1948	01 June 1950
C. D. Deshmukh	29 May, 1950	01 August, 1956
Jawaharlal Nehru	01 August, 1956	30 August, 1956
T. T. Krishnamachari	30 August, 1956	13 February, 1958
Morarji Desai	23 March, 1958	31 August, 1963
Sachindra Chaudhuri	01 January, 1966	13 March, 1967
Indira Gandhi	16 July, 1969	27 June, 1970
Yashwantrao Chavan	27 June, 1970	10 October, 1974
Chidambaram Subramaniam	10 October, 1974	24 March, 1977
Hirubhai M. Patel	24 March, 1977	24 January, 1979	Janata Party
Charan Singh	24 January, 1979	28 July, 1979
Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Hemwati	28 July, 1979	25 October, 1979
R. Venkataraman	14 January, 1980	15 January, 1982	Indian National Congress
Pranab Mukherjee	15 January, 1982	31 December, 1984
V. P. Singh	31 December, 1984	24 January, 1987
Rajiv Gandhi	24 January, 1987	25 July, 1987
N. D. Tiwari	25 July, 1987	25 June, 1988
Shankarrao Chavan	25 June, 1988	2 December, 1989
Madhu Dandavate	2 December, 1989	10 November, 1990	Janata Dal (National Front)
Yashwant Sinha	10 November, 1990	21 June, 1991	Samajwadi Janata Party (National Front)
Manmohan Singh	21 June, 1991	16 May, 1996	Indian National Congress
Jaswant Singh	16 May, 1996	1 June, 1996	Bharatiya Janata Party
P. Chidambaram	1 June, 1996	21 April, 1997	Tamil Maanila Congress (United Front)
I. K. Gujral	21 April, 1997	1 May, 1997	Janata Dal (United Front)
Arun Jaitley	26 May, 2014	14 May, 2018	Bharatiya Janata Party (National Democratic Alliance)
Piyush Goyal	14 May, 2018	22 August, 2018
Nirmala Sitharaman	31 May, 2019	Present

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