NEW DELHI: The Cabinet Committee on political affairs (CCPA) in its meeting on Tuesday recommended advancing the Budget Session from January 31. The CCPA also gave its nod to the presentation of the Union Budget on February 1.
In a departure from the tradition of the presentation of the Union Budget in the last week of February, the CCPA gave its nod to the proposal of advancing the Parliament session, with the inaugural Presidential address to the joint sitting of both the Houses and the tabling of the Economic Survey slated for January 31. The CCPA also gave its nod for the recess of the Budget session of the Parliament from February 9. Sources said that with the MPs of both the Houses likely to be busy with the electioneering in five states heading for Assembly elections, they would get a long window to spend times in their respective constituencies.
The CCPA meeting was chaired by the Union Minister for Home Affairs Rajnath Singh. The meeting was also attended by the senior Cabinet ministers, including Ananth Kumar, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
The government has stated that the objective of advancing the Budget presentation is to allow completion of the whole Budgetary exercise by March 31. “Expenditure, as well as tax proposals, will come into effect right from the beginning of the new financial year, which will help the government achieve better implementation,” said a senior official, who added that the past practices made it possible to complete the whole exercise only by mid-May. “With the Monsoon setting in by May-June, most of the schemes and spendings by states did not take off until October. The states were left with just about a six-month long window to spend the financial allocations earmarked by the Centre for various schemes,” added the official.