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FinMin pitching for Jan 31 Budget

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The final decision on the Budget date will be a political one and will be taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs

The finance ministry is said to be pitching for the Union Budget 2017-18 to be presented on January 31, an event which would give Parliament exactly three months to  approve the Finance Bill before April 1.

The final decision on the Budget date will be a political one and will be taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA). Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said last week that while the government was in favour of advancing the Budget to enable the passage of the Finance Bill before the start of the next financial year, a final call on the matter will be taken after studying the state election schedule.

Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh are slated to go to the polls early next calendar year.

The Budget planners and policymakers in North Block are pushing for a January 31 Budget. It will be a Tuesday, which also raises the likelihood of the 2016-17 Economic Survey being tabled in Parliament on Monday (January 30).

“We have pitched for the last day of January and will prepare the Budget, keeping that date in mind. It will give Parliament three months to pass the Finance Bill,” a senior official said.

Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das had told Business Standard last week in an interview that the finance ministry would be prepared to present the Budget up to four weeks in advance. Incidentally, February 28, 2017, also a Tuesday, would be exactly four weeks from January 31.

The official said that the final decision by CCPA will be taken, based on political consensus with other parties but also conceded that there were larger logistical issues, given that reading the Budget on January 31 will entail starting the Budget session early.

The three-day Republic Day celebrations will end on January 29 with Beating the Retreat ceremony. If the Budget session starts on January 30, that would give the government just two days in which to fit in the President’s Address, Economic Survey and the Budget.

Apart from advancing the date, the 2017-18 Budget will also be the first one in which the Railway Budget and the Union Budget will be merged. There would be no Five-Year Plans after April 1, 2017, when the 12th Five-Year Plan comes to an end, justifying the need for doing away with Plan and non-Plan expenditure. There will only be revenue and capital expenditure classifications in the Budget. 

Business Standard, New Delhi, 28 September 2016

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