The Finance Ministry wrote earlier this week to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, proposing a new Parliamentary calendar and seeking to present the Union Budget on February 1 every year.
As per the schedule proposed, Parliament is to be reconvened for the winter session from November 12. The Ministry plans to introduce bills for rolling out the Central Goods & Services Tax and the Inter-State Goods & Services Tax during this session and has set a deadline of November 22 in the newly-constituted GST Council for finalising these Bills.
Budget session in JanuaryThe winter session will end by December 12 and the budget session is to begin on January 12, 2017. After the presentation of the Budget by the Union Finance Minister, Parliament will go into the customary one-month recess between February 12 and March 12.
The second part of the session will end on March 31, by when the budget exercise will be completed.
A Ministry official said the final schedule could change by a day or so. After approval from Ms. Mahajan, the new Parliamentary calendar will also be sent to the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs for its approval.
“We will work towards completing the discussions on Ministry-wise demands for grants, including Railways, within four weeks instead of the usual six,” Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told The Hindu after a meeting on Wednesday with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
In a meeting on September 21, the Union Cabinet gave its approval for merging the Rail and General budgets from 2017. It also allowed the Ministry to advance the date of presentation (from the conventional last working day of February) to ensure completion of the budget exercise before the start of the new financial year on April 1.
Announcing the decision, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the new date for budget presentation would be announced keeping in view the Assembly elections to be held next year in a number of States.
