Why Union Budget is presented on February 1
What's the story
The Union Budget, India's most awaited financial event, has been presented on February 1 since 2017.
The date was changed by then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Earlier, the Budget was presented on the last working day of February, a practice that dated back to the colonial era.
The decision to present the Budget earlier in the month was mainly driven by two factors.
Reasoning
Jaitley's rationale for budget date change
Jaitley's decision to present the Budget on February 1 was partly an effort to break away from a colonial-era tradition, as India sought to establish its own identity.
But the more crucial reason behind this shift, was the limited time left for the government to implement required changes before the start of the new fiscal year in April.
The earlier presentation date now provides ample time for these adjustments.
Integration
Merger of Union and railway budgets
Apart from changing the Budget presentation date, Jaitley also merged the Union and Railway Budgets in 2017.
The two budgets were presented separately for nearly a century before their merger.
The merger was a policy reform measure to end what was termed as a "culture of populism" which had adversely affected the financial health of the state-owned sector over the years.
Timing change
Shift in budget presentation time
Another major change in India's Budget presentation tradition was the shift in timing from 5:00pm to 11:00am in 1999.
The original timing was a colonial practice to match daylight hours in England owing to the time difference.
However, under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government, the then Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha broke the tradition and presented the Union Budget at 11:00am making it a permanent change.