New Delhi : Having decided to advance the budget presentation, the government is keen that it is not presented in the middle of Assembly elections in five states, said Finance Minister Arun J aitley.
Assembly polls are due early next year in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. “In principle, we have decided that we would like to… advance the date (of budget presentation),” he said. The Cabinet on September 21 had in-principle decided to end the colonial-era tradition of presenting the Union budget on last day of February and advance it by about a month to help complete the legislative approval for the annual spending plans and tax proposals before beginning of the new financial year on April 1, reports PTI.
“The reason we wanted to advance the date was that we want the entire budgetary exercise to be over and the Finance Bill to be passed and implemented from April 1 onwards rather than June because then the monsoons set in and, effectively, the expenditures start in October,” he told CNBC TV18. Stating that the government wants expenditure to start in April itself, he said there are five state Assembly elections lined up in 2017. “So, we are just trying to co-ordinate that you do not have to announce the Budget bang in the middle of an election date. So, it should be reasonably before that or after that,” he said.
The finance ministry had previously proposed that the Budget presentation be fixed for February 1 and the entire exercise be completed by March 24.
