New Delhi: The Budget Session of Parliament will start on January 31 and conclude on April 4.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget 2025 under the Modi 3.0 government on February 1.
The session (January 31-February 13), expected to have 27 sittings, will start with an address by President Droupadi Murmu to the joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on January 31. The Economic Survey for 2024-’25 will be tabled on the same day.
There will be a break to review the Budget proposals from February 13 to March 10, when discussions on the demands for grants of the ministries will take place, completing the budgetary process.
Parliament will reconvene on March 10 and will sit through April 4.
“The Fourth Session of Eighteenth Lok Sabha will commence on Friday, the 31st January, 2025. Subject to exigencies of Government Business, the Session is likely to conclude on Friday, the 4th April, 2025,” an official statement said.
“The President will address both Houses of Parliament assembled together in the Lok Sabha Chamber, Parliament House, New Delhi at 11.00 A.M. on Friday, the 31st January 2025,” it added.
This will be the first full Budget of the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government’s third term. It will also be the eighth time that Sitharaman will present the Budget.
The government, in the ensuing Budget session of Parliament, is likely to introduce a new income tax bill that seeks to simplify the current I-T law, make it comprehensible and reduce the number of pages by about 60 percent.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her July Budget announced a comprehensive review of the six-decade-old Income Tax Act, 1961, within six months.
It will be a new law and not an amendment to the existing Act. Currently, the draft law is being vetted by the law ministry and it is likely to be brought in Parliament in the second half of the Budget session.
ALSO READ: Air India becomes first Indian airline to introduce Wi-Fi service on domestic flights
Since 2017, the Union Budget has been consistently presented on February 1 to allow announcements to take effect before the new financial year begins in April.
However, prior to 1997, the budget was typically presented on the last working day of February, usually at 5 pm.
