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Budget to break convention on Feb 27 at 1100 hrs

Breaking convention, the Union Budget will be presented to the Lok Sabha for the first time in the forenoon on February 27, the last working day of the month.

A decision to this effect is understood to have been taken by the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs.

According to official sources, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha will present the budget at 1100 hrs on that day, ending the age-old convention of doing it in the evening. The Union Budget has been presented at 1700 hrs since the colonial period when the timing at the imperial headquarters in London was taken into account.

The time also suited the Union finance ministry since most of the budget levies come into effect immediately, leaving no chance for speculation in the commodity or stock markets.

The parliamentary affairs ministry mooted the proposal to advance the presentation to forenoon and this is understood to have been approved by the CCPA.

The ministry also had a problem on the dates since the last day of February happened to be a Sunday. It was decided to present the budget on February 27 since it is presented on the last working day of February as per convention.

The railway budget will be presented on February 25. The budget session of Parliament is scheduled to open on February 22 with the address by President K R Narayanan to both houses of Parliament.

UNI

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