Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar on Friday announced that the government will present its Budget for 2018-’19 on February 1, ANI reported. He said the first part of the Budget Session of Parliament will be held from January 29 to February 9 and the second from March 5 to April 6.
In 2017, the Narendra Modi government had decided to bring the Budget forward by a month to February 1. It also ended the practice of presenting a separate Railway Budget, choosing to merge it with the general Budget.
The Opposition had protested against the move to present the Budget on February 1, 2017, as it clashed with the Assembly elections in Punjab, Goa, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The parties had demanded that the Budget be postponed to March, after the elections in all states was over.
The Winter Session of Parliament ended on Friday. Both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were adjourned with no proceedings during the day. However, the upper house of Parliament failed to pass the triple talaq bill due to opposition from the Congress. The bill is now likely to be tabled in the Rajya Sabha during the Budget Session.
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