Budget 2019 date: Complete schedule of Arun Jaitley's last budget session before Lok Sabha polls

Budget 2019 date: Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is all set to present its last Union Budget before the 2019 general elections.

Arun Jaitley would be presenting his sixth Union Budget during a joint session in Parliament.

Budget 2019 date: Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is all set to present its last Union Budget before the 2019 general elections which is likely to take place in the months of April-May, this year. Presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Budget 2019-2020 would be the sixth and the last presentation by the incumbent BJP-NDA led government before Lok Sabha elections 2019. As per media reports, the Finance Ministry has already started the budgetary exercise for 2019-20 in October last year. It started holding meetings with ministries including, road, steel, railways, power, urban development among others to figure out the revised expenditure for the current financial year and projections for the next. This year’s budget would be a crucial one for Modi government in order to emerge victorious in the coming elections. The NDA-led government will have to focus on development and fine-tune its existing strategies to gain voters’ trust. Why 6th Union Budget when term of a government is only for 5 years? When the NDA took over the Central government back in 2014, two budgets were presented. Finance Minister of the previous UPA government P Chidambaram presented an interim budget in February 2014 due to the then scheduled general elections. An interim Budget refers to the budget of a government that is going through a transition period. In 2014, after Modi government assumed to power in May that year, Jaitley presented a full and a revised Union Budget in July once again. As per the rule, if Budget session falls months ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the government in power presents an interim Budget, which is then detailed by the new government. Date of Union Budget 2019 As per initial reports, Jaitley would be presenting his sixth Union Budget during a joint session in Parliament on February 1, 2019. However, the Finance Ministry is yet to take a final call on the Budget date and could also present it on January 31. Last year, Jaitley presented the fifth and the last full-fledged Union Budget on February 1. The budget session of parliament began from January 29, 2018. Time of Budget speech by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley The hours-long Budget speech will be delivered by the Finance Minister on February 1 likely from 11 am just like the previous five occasions. In 2018, Jaitley started the Budget speech at 11 am and it was a 2-hour long speech which ended at around 1 pm. Date of Railway Budget 2019 As merged with the Union Budget, the Railway Budget 2019 will also be presented on February 1. Announcements regarding changes in rail policies will be made in between Jaitley’s Budget speech. In 2016, the Modi government decided to merge Rail Budget with the Union Budget from the year 2017-18. The government justified the move citing a number of benefits including multimodal transport planning between highways, railways and inland waterways.