Nirmala Sitharaman to present maiden Union Budget on July 5

New Delhi: Hours after the first meeting of the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar Friday said that the Union Budget will be presented on July 5 in Parliament.
The interim budget for the year 2019-20 was presented by then Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on February 1, 2019. The Economic Survey will be released on July 4. This will be the debut budget of newly appointed Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who is the first full-time women finance minister of India.
The budget will be presented in the first session of Parliament for the new government that begins June 17 and continues till July 26. President Ram Nath Kovind will address the joint session of Parliament on June 20. The development comes on a day when the Prime Minister chairing the Cabinet meeting made a slew of announcements for farmers including the extension of the PM-Kisan scheme to all farmers. In its manifesto for 2019 general elections, the BJP had promised to extend the scheme to all farmers. Following the meeting, Modi said, “Glad that path-breaking decisions were taken in the Cabinet, the first in this tenure. Hardworking farmers and industrious traders will benefit greatly due to these decisions. The decisions will enhance the dignity and empowerment of several Indians.”
The previous BJP government had announced the Rs 75,000 crore Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Siddhi (PMKSS) in the interim budget. The budget comes in the shadow of a slowdown in the Indian economy with the GDP falling to 5.8 per cent in the fourth quarter putting India behind China.