Opposition demands Budget 2017 be tabled after March 11

Union Budget 2017 - Opposition parties have demanded that presentation of the General Budget 2017 be postponed to after March 11, the date of counting of votes for the five states going to the polls. They have slammed it as a short term political move with an eye on the assembly polls to enable the Narendra Modi government to announce sops before the elections while bypassing the Election Commission's (EC) model code of conduct.

The Election Commission on Wednesday announced poll dates for Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Polls in Goa and Punjab will be held in a single phase on February 4, while in Uttarakhand on February 15. Manipur will have a two-phase election with polling on March 4 and 8. Uttar Pradesh will have a seven phase polling from February 11 to March 8. The counting of votes is on Saturday, March 11. The process will be completed before Holi, which this year falls on March 13.

On Tuesday, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs decided to advance the first phase of the Budget session of Parliament from January 31 to February 9, instead of last week of February. The General Budget will be presented on February 1, instead of the usual last working day of February. (Read More)

CCPA recommends tabling of Budget on February 1

Latest Business News - The Narendra Modi government on Tuesday did away with the long-winded first week of the Budget session of Parliament. This year, the Budget will be tabled on February 1.

The Rail Budget 2017 will form a part of the finance Budget, while the President’s address to the two Houses and the Economic Survey will be tabled on January 31, the first day of the Budget session.

The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, met on Tuesday morning to decide on the early presentation of the Budget.

The practice until now was to devote a day each for the President’s address to the joint sitting of the two Houses, the Railway Budget, the Economic Survey and finally the Union Budget. The Budget was usually tabled on February 28 and was passed by end-May.

The early tabling of the Budget ends a 70-year tradition. It would also mean that the entire exercise should end by the end of the financial year on March 31, to enable tax proposals to come into effect from the beginning of the new financial year.(Read More)

Feel good budget: Social outlay may go up, health & education a priority

Breaking News - As part of a post-demonetisation gift, the government could increase spending for the coming financial year in health, education, women & child development and related social sector schemes by 10-12 per cent, Business Standard has learnt.

This would run concurrently with the increased layout on social sector by state governments, after the Fourteenth Finance Commission (FFC) recommended the latter spend more on schemes in health, education and similar segments. Most of these areas are state subjects.
The FFC had increased the devolution of taxes to states from the divisible pool, from 32 per cent to 42 per cent. However, it had reduced non-tax transfers. In its report, the 
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Y V Reddy-headed commission had said, “We urge state governments to use the additional fiscal space provided by us in the tax devolution to meet such requirements.” After it accepted the FFC recommendations, the Centre had slightly reduced some of its budgeted spending in social sector schemes for 2015-16 and 2016-17. That is set to reverse. Budget makers believe proceeds from the latest voluntary disclosure scheme, income tax raids and whatever dividends the Reserve Bank of India can pass on will enable that extra spending, government sources said.  (Read More)

Is it time to end a 150-year-old tradition and move to a Jan-Dec financial year?

With Finance Minister Arun Jaitley all set to present the budget for 2017-18 on February 1, 2017, India will again debate if a 150-year-old colonial-era tradition of a financial year that runs from April-March should be discarded and switched to January-December, in line with the country’s monsoons and agricultural harvests.

The central government adopted the April-March financial year in 1867 to align the Indian financial year with the British government, according to this discussion note on changing India’s financial year released by Niti Aayog. Prior to 1867, a May-April financial year was followed. In July 2016, the finance ministry has constituted an expert committee–chaired by Shankar Acharya, former chief economic advisor–to look at the feasibility of changing the financial year, according to a statement by the ministry to the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament) on December 16, 2016. The committee will submit its report to the government on December 31, 2016.(Read More)