New Delhi: Ahead of the crucial GST council meet, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held a pre-budget meeting with Finance Ministers of all states on Friday morning. As per reports, the meeting was held to discuss important inclusions which are to be made in the Union Budget and Sitharaman will seek suggestions from Finance Ministers on union budget for FY20.

This will be first time Sitharaman, who took charge of Finance Minister from Jaitley will be presenting the Union Minister.

17th Lok Sabha session resumed on June 17 and is set to end on July 26. The dates of the session were decided in the first cabinet meeting of the Narendra Modi government.

The economic survey will be tabled on July 4 followed by the presentation of the budget on the next day. The session will have a total of 30 sittings. It will be the first budget of the Modi government in its second term.

The interim budget for the year 2019-20 was presented by then Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on February 1.




Sitharaman to face first test today:

Nirmala Sitharaman will face her first litmus test as the Finance Minister on Friday evening as she is set to chair the 35th meeting of the powerful federal indirect tax body, the GST Council, on Friday.