Budget won’t be postponed: Center

January 11, 2017 Hot from the Oven Valli Sarvani No comments

Normally, the Union Budget is presented by the end of February month each year.

The Railway Budget will be presented prior to the general budget in the Parliament.

But, this time, government wants to merge both the budgets and present it the beginning of February month.

The central government has decided to prepone the budget session from this financial year onwards and all plans are made accordingly.

As per the government’s plans, budget sessions will be held be on February 1.

But, due to Assembly elections in five states, opposition demanded to postpone the budget till the end of election process.

The opposition claims that it is a violation of code of conduct.

They already filed a petition with both the Election Commission and the President of India.

Election Commission of India (ECI) asked the center’s opinion on this matter. But, the central government replied that the budget cannot be postponed as it is the constitutional duty.

Now, ECI has to decide the matter after consulting the matter with legal experts.

Based on that, the budget will be presented on February 1 as per the proposal of government.

Even though, the central government is not willing to postpone the proposed budget dates, opposition counters its argument.

It says that there were many instances in the past where the budget was postponed considering the execution of code of conduct during elections.

It adds that as soon as the dates of election are announced, the model code of conduct will come into effect.

The opposition’s view is that the announcements in budget might affect the elections since budget is very crucial for citizens.

Legal experts advise that it is better for the ECI to tell the government to avoid announcing key sops in states where elections are being conducted.

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