Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her sixth consecutive budget on February 1. It will be an interim budget as India is about to hold Lok Sabha elections later this year.
A full budget will be presented once the new cabinet is established. Every year, on February 1, at 11 a.m., the budget is presented. However, this was not the case previously as it was announced at 5pm on the last business day of February.
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- Why will the budget be presented at 11 am?
- Who changed the practice?
- How will the budget be presented on February 1 this year?
Why will the budget be presented at 11 am?
The Budget is delivered at 5:00 p.m. on the last working day of February since colonial times | Image: Generated in DALL.E
The Budget was delivered at 5 pm on the last working day of February since colonial times. This time was chosen due to the time difference between India and the UK.
Indian time is 5.5 hours ahead of British Summer Time. The Budget announcements at 5 pm (IST) ensured that they were made throughout the day in the UK.
Who changed the practice?
Yashwant Sinha changed the practice in 1999 | Image: X
Yashwant Sinha changed the practice in 1999, during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee administration. Yashwant Sinha recommended that the budget be delivered at 11 am to allow time for numerical analysis and better informed debate in Parliament.
Yashwant Sinha presented India’s first budget at 11 am on February 27, 1999. Since then, it is delivered at 11 am.
How will the budget be presented on February 1 this year?
From 1999 to 2017, the Union Budget was delivered on the last working day of February; however, this changed in 2017. Arun Jaitley stated that from 2017, the budget would be delivered on February 1 instead of the last working day.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn