Modi govt to present its first General Budget on July 10

The Budget session of Parliament will be held from July 7 to August 14 and the first General Budget of the Narendra Modi government will be presented on July 10.

The Rail Budget will be presented on July 8, while the Economic Survey will be released on July 9, the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) decided today at a meeting held in Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu's chamber in Parliament House.

The CCPA, 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 ordinances have to be converted into bills before third week of July.

The over month-long session will have a total of 28 sittings.

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 opposition is likely to rake up the issue of hike in rail passenger fares and freight rates ahead of the presentation of the Rail Budget.

Naidu had recently said that the election of Deputy Speaker will take place during the Budget session.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has already said that she would take a decision on the issue of the leader of Opposition in the lok Sabha before the Budget session.

Congress, which lacks the requisite numbers, is seeking the post claiming that it is the single largest party in the opposition benches and its pre-poll alliance -- UPA -- has together more than the adequate numbers to claim the post.