1st General Budget to be presented on July 10, Rail Budget on July 8
The first General Budget of the Narendra Modi Government will be presented on July 10 as the Budget session of Parliament will commence from July 7 and conclude on August 14 with a total of 28 sittings. The Rail Budget will be presented on July 8, while the Economic Survey will be released on July 9.
This was decided by the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) on Monday at a meeting held in Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu’s chamber in Parliament House.
The vote-on-account budget approved by the previous Parliament ends on July 31 and a new budget has to be in place before that date. The Union Budget will be presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on July 10.
The meeting, headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, decided that Bills to replace ordinances, including the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities (Amendment) Ordinance, the one on Polavaram project, the TRAI Act (Amendment) Ordinance and the one on SEBI, will be brought on a priority basis for consideration in the session, official sources said.
The Government has already raised rail passenger fares and freight rates ahead of the railway budget which has been criticised by the Opposition as well as the BJP ally Shiv Sena. The Opposition is expected to raise the issue of passenger and freight hike during the budget session.
The BJP Government has indicated “strong measures” to set right the health of economy that may include slashing of subsidies in the budget proposals. It has already hiked duty on sugar import,
Defending the rail fare hike, Union Minister Ramvilas Paswan said it was a “compulsion” as no Government wants to increase fares.
The Budget session may witness election of Deputy Speaker as also leader of Opposition of the lower house. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has already said that she would take a decision on the issue of the loP in the lok Sabha before the Budget session. Congress with 44 MPs does not have the requisite numbers to automatically claim the post of loP.