The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA), under the chairmanship of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, on Wednesday approved the key dates for the upcoming Budget Session of Parliament. According to the Parliament calendar, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget 2026-27 on February 1, Sunday.
With this, it will be the first time in a recent memory that the Union Budget is presented on a Sunday.
The President’s address to the joint sitting of Parliament will be held on January 28, marking the start of the Budget Session. The Economic Survey will be tabled in Parliament on January 29.
According to a CNBC-TV18 report earlier, budget preparations are already underway.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting her nineth consecutive Union Budget, which will also be the 80th Budget since Independence. Since 2017, the government has followed the practice of presenting the Union Budget at 11 am on February 1, after advancing it from the earlier tradition of February 28. The shift was first implemented during the tenure of former finance minister Arun Jaitley, with the aim of ensuring quicker implementation of budgetary proposals from the start of the new financial year.
However, presenting the Budget on a weekend would not be unprecedented. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had presented the Budget 2025 on a Saturday, while former finance minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budgets of 2015 and 2016 on February 28, both Saturdays.
Sitharaman will also create history by becoming the first finance minister to present nine consecutive Union Budgets, further cementing her position among India’s longest-serving finance ministers. This would bring her closer to the record held by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who presented a total of 10 Budgets across two stints — six between 1959 and 1964, and four between 1967 and 1969.
Among other recent finance ministers, P Chidambaram had presented nine Budgets, while Pranab Mukherjee presented eight Budgets during their respective tenures under different prime ministers.
Sitharaman was appointed India’s first full-time woman finance minister in 2019, following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s return to power for a second term. She continued to hold the finance portfolio after the Modi government secured a third consecutive term in 2024.
Meanwhile, according to the government’s First Advance Estimates released on January 7, India’s real gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to grow at 7.4% in FY 2025-26 despite global challenges amid tariff war, which is higher than the 6.5% expansion recorded a year ago.
The advance estimates data is used in preparation of the Union Budget, which will be presented on February 1.
