February no more the budget month? Govt planning to advance budget dates to January

Since the British era, Indians have been seeing February as the month when the budget is presented; however, there are chances that this might change now.

Even though there hasn’t been a final decision, the government is said to be considering completing the budget exercise before March 31st, for which the budget needs to be presented in the month of January. This will speed up the policy transmission, also enabling departments to spend the funds from the start of the financial year rather than waiting until May for money to be actually allocated.

"We have not decided the date but it may be at the end of January," a source told TNN. However, one has to remember the Republic Day preparations, which would most likely collide with the budget announcements.

This is one of the many changes planned by the Centre that would be implemented from the next financial year.

However, this is not the first time that India’s budget is going to see changes. While the Budget was presented at 5 pm from British era until 1999, it was the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government that started presenting it at 11 am.

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