The minister of finance or the finance minister (ISO: Vitta Mantrī) is the head of the Ministry of Finance and a high-ranking minister in the Union Council of Ministers of the Government of India. The finance minister is responsible for the fiscal policy of the government, and presents the annual union budget in the Indian parliament. The minister is usually a member of the Cabinet Committee on Security, and the National Security Council. The finance minister is assisted by a minister of state and, less commonly by a deputy minister.
The first finance minister of independent India was R. K. Shanmukham Chetty of the Indian National Congress, who served in the First Nehru ministry from 15 August 1947 to 17 August 1948. P. Chidambaram of the Congress has had the longest tenure, serving for eight years and 41 days. Nirmala Sitharaman of the Bharatiya Janata Party is the incumbent finance minister, serving since 31 May 2019.
Two finance ministers–R.Venkataraman and Pranab Mukherjee, had gone on to serve as the president later. Four finance ministers–Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, Vishwanath Pratap Singh, and Manmohan Singh, later served as the prime minister.
Cabinet ministers PortraitMinisterTerm of officePolitical party MinistryPrime Minister From To Period Pre-independence (19461947) Liaquat Ali Khan 29 October1946 14 August1947 All-India Muslim League Interim Jawaharlal Nehru After independence (1947present) R. K. Shanmukham Chetty 15 August1947 17 August1948 Indian National Congress Nehru I Jawaharlal Nehru Kshitish Chandra Neogy 18 August1948 22 September1948 John Matthai 22 September1948 1 June1950 C. D. Deshmukh 1 June1950 15 April1952 15 April1952 24 July1956 Nehru II Jawaharlal Nehru(Prime Minister) 24 July1956 30 August1956 T. T. Krishnamachari 30 August1956 4 April1957 4 April1957 13 February1958 Nehru III Morarji Desai 13 February1958 2 April1962 2 April1962 31 August1963 Nehru IV T. T. Krishnamachari 31 August1963 27 May1964 27 May1964 9 June1964 Nanda I Gulzarilal Nanda 9 June1964 31 December1965 Shastri Lal Bahadur Shastri Sachindra Chaudhuri 1 January1966 11 January1966 11 January1966 24 January1966 Nanda II Gulzarilal Nanda 24 January1966 12 March1967 Indira I Indira Gandhi Morarji Desai(Deputy Prime Minister) 13 March1967 16 July1969 Indira II Indira Gandhi(Prime Minister) 16 July1969 27 June1970 Indian National Congress (R) Yashwantrao Chavan 27 June1970 13 March1971 13 March1971 10 October1974 Indira III Chidambaram Subramaniam 10 October1974 24 March1977 Morarji Desai(Prime Minister) 24 March1977 26 March1977 Janata Party Desai Morarji Desai Hirubhai M. Patel 26 March1977 24 January1979 Charan Singh(Deputy Prime Minister) 24 January1979 16 July1979 Morarji Desai(Prime Minister) 16 July1979 28 July1979 Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna 28 July1979 19 October1979 Janata Party (Secular) Charan Charan Singh Charan Singh(Prime Minister) 19 October1979 14 January1980 Ramaswamy Venkataraman 14 January1980 15 January1982 Indian National Congress (I) Indira IV Indira Gandhi Pranab Mukherjee 15 January1982 31 October1984 31 October1984 31 December1984 Rajiv I Rajiv Gandhi Vishwanath Pratap Singh 31 December1984 24 January1987 Rajiv II Rajiv Gandhi(Prime Minister) 24 January1987 25 July1987 N. D. Tiwari 25 July1987 25 June1988 Shankarrao Chavan 25 June1988 2 December1989 Vishwanath Pratap Singh(Prime Minister) 2 December1989 5 December1989 Janata Dal Vishwanath Vishwanath Pratap Singh Madhu Dandavate 6 December1989 10 November1990 Chandra Shekhar(Prime Minister) 10 November1990 21 November1990 Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) Chandra Shekhar Chandra Shekhar Yashwant Sinha 21 November1990 21 June1991 Manmohan Singh 21 June1991 16 May1996 Indian National Congress (I) Rao P. V. Narasimha Rao Jaswant Singh 16 May1996 1 June1996 Bharatiya Janata Party Vajpayee I Atal Bihari Vajpayee P. Chidambaram 1 June1996 21 April1997 Tamil Maanila Congress Deve Gowda H. D. Deve Gowda Inder Kumar Gujral(Prime Minister) 21 April1997 1 May1997 Janata Dal Gujral Inder Kumar Gujral P. Chidambaram 1 May1997 19 March1998 Tamil Maanila Congress Yashwant Sinha 19 March1998 13 October1999 Bharatiya Janata Party Vajpayee II Atal Bihari Vajpayee 13 October1999 1 July2002 Vajpayee III Jaswant Singh 1 July2002 22 May2004 P. Chidambaram 23 May2004 30 November2008 Indian National Congress Manmohan I Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh(Prime Minister) 30 November2008 24 January2009 Pranab Mukherjee 24 January2009 22 May2009 23 May2009 26 June2012 Manmohan II Manmohan Singh(Prime Minister) 26 June2012 31 July2012 P. Chidambaram 31 July2012 26 May2014 Arun Jaitley 27 May2014 14 May2018 Bharatiya Janata Party Modi I Narendra Modi Piyush Goyal 14 May2018 23 August2018 Arun Jaitley 23 August2018 23 January2019 Piyush Goyal 23 January2019 15 February2019 Arun Jaitley 15 February2019 30 May2019 Nirmala Sitharaman 31 May2019 Incumbent Modi II Modi III
Ministers of state PortraitMinisterTerm of officePolitical party MinistryPrime Minister From To Period Mahavir TyagiMinister of Revenue and Expenditure,from 21 August 1952 16 February1951 13 May1952 Indian National Congress Nehru I Jawaharlal Nehru 13 May1952 16 March1953 Nehru II Arun Chandra GuhaMinister of Revenue and Defence Expenditure 7 December1954 17 April1957 Manilal Chaturbhai ShahMinister of Revenue and Civil Expenditure Bezawada Gopala ReddyMinister of Revenue and Civil Expenditure 10 May1958 7 April1961 Nehru III Bali Ram Bhagat(Coordination) 1 November1963 27 May1964 Nehru IV 27 May1964 9 June1964 Nanda I Gulzarilal Nanda 13 June1964 11 January1966 Shastri Lal Bahadur Shastri C. M. PoonachaMinister of Revenue and Expenditure 2 January1966 11 January1966 C. M. PoonachaMinister of Revenue and Expenditure 11 January1966 24 January1966 Nanda II Gulzarilal Nanda Bali Ram Bhagat(Coordination) Bali Ram Bhagat 24 January1966 13 March1967 Indira I Indira Gandhi Prakash Chandra Sethi 14 February1969 27 June1970 Indian National Congress (R) Indira II Raghunath Keshav Khadilkar 7 November1969 27 June1970 Vidya Charan Shukla 27 June1970 18 March1971 18 March1971 2 May1971 Indira III K. R. Ganesh 2 May1971 10 October1974 Pranab Mukherjee(Revenue and Banking,from 21 December 1975) 10 October1974 24 March1977 Zulfiquarullah 14 August1977 15 July1979 Janata Party Desai Morarji Desai Satish Chandra Agarwal 14 August1977 28 July1979 Nathuram Mirdha 25 October1979 14 January1980 Janata Party (Secular) Charan Charan Singh Jagannath Pahadia 14 January1980 6 June1980 Indian National Congress (I) Indira IV Indira Gandhi Sawai Singh Sisodiya(Revenue and Expenditure) 19 October1980 2 September1982 S. B. P. Pattabhirama Rao 2 September1982 7 February1984 S. M. Krishna 7 February1984 7 September1984 Janardhana Poojary 31 December1984 14 February1988 Indian National Congress (I) Rajiv II Rajiv Gandhi B. K. Gadhvi 12 May1986 2 December1989 Brahm Dutt 24 January1987 25 July1987 Ajit Kumar Panja(Revenue) 14 February1988 2 December1989 Eduardo Faleiro(Economic Affairs) 14 February1988 2 December1989 Dalbir Singh 21 June1991 17 January1993 Indian National Congress (I) Rao P. V. Narasimha Rao Shantaram Potdukhe 21 June1991 17 January1993 Rameshwar Thakur 26 June1991 18 January1993 M. V. Chandrashekara Murthy(Revenue and Expenditure) 18 January1993 16 May1996 Abrar Ahmed 18 January1993 2 April1994 Debi Prasad Pal 15 September1995 16 May1996 M. P. Veerendra Kumar 21 February1997 21 April1997 Janata Dal Deve Gowda H. D. Deve Gowda 21 April1997 9 June1997 Gujral Inder Kumar Gujral Satpal Maharaj 9 June1997 19 March1998 All India Indira Congress (Tiwari) R. K. Kumar(Revenue, Banking and Insurance) 19 March1998 22 May1998 All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Vajpayee II Atal Bihari Vajpayee Kadambur R. Janarthanan 22 May1998 8 April1999 Balasaheb Vikhe Patil 13 October1999 1 July2002 Shiv Sena Vajpayee III V. Dhananjay Kumar 13 October1999 30 September2000 Bharatiya Janata Party Gingee N. Ramachandran 30 September2000 24 May2003 Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Anant Geete(Banking and Expenditure) 1 July2002 26 August2002 Shiv Sena Anandrao Vithoba Adsul 26 August2002 22 May2004 Shripad Naik 8 September2003 22 May2004 Bharatiya Janata Party S. S. Palanimanickam(Revenue, from 29 January 2006) 25 May2004 22 May2009 Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Manmohan I Manmohan Singh Pawan Kumar Bansal(Expenditure, Banking and Insurance) 29 January2006 22 May2009 Indian National Congress S. S. Palanimanickam(Revenue) 28 May2009 21 March2013 Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Manmohan II Namo Narain Meena(Expenditure, Banking and Insurance) 28 May2009 26 May2014 Indian National Congress Jesudasu Seelam(Revenue) 17 June2013 26 May2014 Nirmala Sitharaman 27 May2014 9 November2014 Bharatiya Janata Party Modi I Narendra Modi Jayant Sinha 9 November2014 5 July2016 Santosh Kumar Gangwar 5 July2016 3 September2017 Arjun Ram Meghwal Pon Radhakrishnan 3 September2017 30 May2019 Shiv Pratap Shukla Anurag Singh Thakur 31 May2019 7 July2021 Modi II Pankaj Chaudhary 7 July2021 9 June2024 Bhagwat Karad Pankaj Chaudhary 10 June2024 Incumbent Modi III
Deputy ministers PortraitMinisterTerm of officePolitical party MinistryPrime Minister From To Period Manilal Chaturbhai Shah 12 August1952 7 December1954 Indian National Congress Nehru II Jawaharlal Nehru Arun Chandra Guha 18 March1953 7 December1954 Bali Ram Bhagat 4 January1956 17 April1957 17 April1957 10 April1962 Nehru III Tarkeshwari Sinha 10 May1958 10 April1962 Bali Ram Bhagat 16 April1962 21 September1963 Nehru IV Tarkeshwari Sinha 16 April1962 27 May1964 27 May1964 9 June1964 Nanda I Gulzarilal Nanda Rameshwar Sahu 1 October1964 11 January1966 Shastri Lal Bahadur Shastri 11 January1966 24 January1966 Nanda II Gulzarilal Nanda Lalit Narayan Mishra 24 January1966 13 March1967 Indira I Indira Gandhi Jagannath Pahadia 13 November1967 17 October1969 Indira II K. R. Ganesh 26 June1970 18 March1971 Indian National Congress (R) Indira II 18 March1971 2 May1971 Indira III Sushila Rohatgi 2 May1971 24 March1977 Maganbhai Barot 8 June1980 15 January1982 Indian National Congress (I) Indira IV Indira Gandhi Janardhana Poojary(Banking and Insurance) 15 January1982 31 October1984 31 October1984 31 December1984 Rajiv I Rajiv Gandhi Anil Shastri 23 April1990 10 November1990 Janata Dal Vishwanath Vishwanath Pratap Singh Digvijay Singh 21 November1990 21 June1991 Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) Chandra Shekhar Chandra Shekhar
List by length of tenure Cabinet Ministers