Union Budget 2026 Scheduled for Sunday After Key Panel Approves Parliament Calendar
Union Budget 2026 Scheduled for Sunday After Key Panel Approves Parliament Calendar
For the first time in recent memory, the Union Budget will be presented on a Sunday, February 1. The Parliament session will commence on January 28, with the Economic Survey scheduled to be tabled on January 29.
Budget 2026 Date: The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA), chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, on Wednesday cleared the schedule for Parliament’s upcoming Budget Session. As per the parliamentary calendar, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget for 2026–27 on Sunday, February 1.
This will mark a rare occasion in recent times, as the Union Budget will be presented on a Sunday.
The Budget Session will begin with the President’s address to a joint sitting of Parliament on January 28, while the Economic Survey is scheduled to be tabled on January 29. According to an earlier CNBC-TV18 report, preparations for the Budget are already in progress.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to present her ninth consecutive Union Budget, which will also be the 88th Budget since India’s Independence. Since 2017, the government has followed the practice of presenting the Budget at 11 am on February 1, advancing it from the earlier convention of February 28. The change was introduced during the tenure of former finance minister Arun Jaitley to facilitate faster implementation of budget proposals from the start of the financial year.
While presenting the Budget on a weekend may seem unusual, it is not without precedent. Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2025 on a Saturday, and Arun Jaitley had delivered the Budgets of 2015 and 2016 on February 28, both of which fell on Saturdays.
Sitharaman will also create history by becoming the first finance minister to present nine consecutive Union Budgets, strengthening her position among India’s longest-serving finance ministers. She will move closer to the record held by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who presented 10 Budgets across two tenures—six between 1959 and 1964, and four between 1967 and 1969.
Among other recent finance ministers, P Chidambaram presented nine Budgets, while Pranab Mukherjee delivered eight during their respective tenures under different prime ministers.
Appointed in 2019, Sitharaman became India’s first full-time woman finance minister after Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned to power for a second term. She continued in the role after the Modi-led government secured a third consecutive term in 2024.
Meanwhile, the government’s First Advance Estimates released on January 7 project India’s real GDP growth at 7.4% for FY 2025–26, despite global headwinds and tariff-related challenges. This would be higher than the 6.5% growth recorded in the previous year.
These advance estimates play a key role in framing the Union Budget, which will be presented on February 1.
