Budget on February 1? | Fusion - WeRIndia

The rumors about the next year’s union budget being presented at around February 1 have been all but confirmed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday confirmed that next year’s budget will be around February start. Normally it is unveiled at the end of February.

Modi disclosed the dates implicitly when he was asking the state governments to do the budget earlier so they are aligned with Union budget.

He said that the Union budget will be presented about a month earlier. This plan to do so is to have faster implementation of projects and schemes. He asked all states to produce their budgets aligned with the union budgets so they will be aligned. This is to help the states get maximum advantage of the advancement.

N.R. Bhanumurthy, a professor at New Delhi-based think tank National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, said that the plan is to have the Union budget will be serving like an input to state budgets so they can plan their budgets better.

By advancing the day of the presentation, states can complete legislative procedures before the start of the finance year. This helps them to start spending on time.

The union cabinet has already decided to merge the railway budget with the Union budget. They discussed the idea of advancing the presentation.

This also suggests that the budget session of Parliament will be held earlier. Every year, the budget session starts in the last week of February and runs till mid-May with a recess in between.

This is the second time a major shift has occurred in the budget schedule by a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. The first time was under prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2001. The time of presenting the budget was changed to 11am from 5pm.

Advancing the date of budget presentation is expected to start capital expenditure measures from the beginning of the fiscal year.

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