Centre defends its decision on Budget

The government on Tuesday replied to the Election Commission on the opposition complaint against presenting the Union Budget before Assembly elections.

The Cabinet Secretariat on Tuesday wrote to the Election Commission which had asked it to respond to a representation by opposition parties urging the poll panel to make the government postpone the Budget till Assembly polls are over.

The government is learnt to have described the Union budget as an annual constitutional exercise covering the entire country and not just a few states, an apparent rebuttal of the Opposition charge that the Budget will be used to woo voters in the pollbound states.

It has also said that the advancing of Budget presentation was necessary as it would ensure that all budgetary provisions are allocated to different sectors from April 1, the beginning of the new fiscal.

The budget is usually presented around last week of February and, as a result, the approval of the Budget spills over to the next financial year, delaying the start of new programmes.

The Budget session has been convened from January 31. The Budget and the Economic Survey are slated to be presented the next day.

Earlier, the government while defending the move to advance the session had said that the parliamentary committees have already been informed to study budgetary proposals in the recess period between February 10 and March 8.

The Budget session has already been convened from January 31 when the President will address the joint sitting of the two Houses.