The Union Cabinet is likely to consider Finance Ministry's proposal of advancing the date for Budget presentation and decide on the date on which Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present the budget for 2017-18. The Finance Ministry had earlier proposed that the Budget presentation date be fixed for February 1 and the entire exercise be completed by March 24.
The Cabinet had on September 21 in-principle decided to end the colonial-era tradition of presenting the Union Budget on the last day of February and advance it by about a month to help complete the legislative approval for annual spending plans and tax proposals before beginning of the new financial year on April 1.
Finance Ministry wanted the Budget Session of Parliament to begin before January 25 and go in for a three-week break between February 10-15 before reconvening between March 10-15 to complete the legislative exercise and the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that 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 monsoon sets in and effectively, the expenditures start in October.
Having decided to advance the Budget presentation by a month, the government took the line that it should not be presented in the middle of assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, the assembly elections in these five states is likely to be held in phases, there is a probability that this budget schedule may clash with the campaigning and polling.
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