Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the union budget for the third time in the Parliament on February 1. This is the country's first budget post-coronavirus pandemic. All eyes are on the Centre and the initiatives it will take to reboot the country's economy.
The Finance Minister will start her Budget speech in Lok Sabha at 11 am. The Budget will be live telecast on India Today and Aaj Tak channels.
The Union Budget 2021, which is the eighth budget of PM-Modi led government, can also be downloaded from the Government of India's official website www.indiabudget.gov.in after the Budget will be tabled in the Parliament. All the latest updates on Budget can be read at BusinessToday.in LIVE blog .
The Budget sessions comprise two parts--the first phase of the Budget session began on January 29, when the Finance Minister and Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Krishnamurthy Subramanian tabled the Economic Survey.
The phase-1 of the Budget session will be held between January 29 and February 15, whereas, the second phase will begin from March 8 to April 8. Both the houses will meet in shifts of five hours each. The Rajya Sabha will meet from 9 am to 2 pm while the Lok Sabha would meet from 3 pm to 8 pm.
This will be the first time since the presentation of independent India's first budget on November 26, 1947, that the documents have not been physically printed. All MPs will get soft copies of the budget. The familiar sight of trucks loaded with budget papers in Parliament on the budget day and scanning of these by security guard will not be witnessed this time.
The Modi-led government scrapped a colonial-era tradition of presenting the Budget at the end of February. Then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had for the first time presented the annual accounts on February 1, 2017.
Also read: Budget 2021: Date, time, sector-wise expectations; everything you need to know