New Delhi: The Budget Session of Parliament is all set to begin on January 29, with the joint address of both houses of Parliament by President Ram Nath Kovind.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget 2020-2021 on February 1 at 11 AM. The Budget Session is likely to conclude on April 8.
Lok Sabha Secretariat in a statement said, “President Ram Nath Kovind will address join sitting of both Houses of Parliament at 11.00 am on January 29 while Union Budget 2020-21 will be presented at 11 am on February 1.”
“In order to enable the Standing Committees to consider the Demands for Grants of Ministries/Departments and prepare their Reports, the House will adjourn on February 15 to meet again on March 8,” Lok Sabha Secretariat said.
2nd half of Budget session from Mar 8 to April 8
The second part of the budget session is likely to be held from March 8 to April 8. From February 2 to April 8, the Lower House will function from 4 pm to 9 pm, reports said.
Earlier, the Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi said that the government’s intention is to complete the session without any curtailment. He said that if there are any emergency bills or ordinances to bring, “we will prefer to do that in the first phase. Bills that need to be taken will be taken into account. There will be question-hour and zero-hour as well and the rest will be at the discretion of the Speaker.”
Budget 2021 set to go digital
The budget this year is set to go digital as all members of the Parliament will get soft copies of the Economic Survey as well as Union Budget.
For the first time since Independence, the budget copies will not be printed. The decision to do away this custom was apparently taken over worries of Covid-19.
The winter session of the Parliament was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
