Budget 2020 Parliament Session To Begin On 31 January

The Parliament's Budget session for the upcoming financial year 2020-21 will begin on 31 January and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her second union budget on 1 February.

According to a PTI report citing sources, Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs has recommended holding the Budget Session in two phases with a recess. The first phase of the session will be held from 31 January to 11 February and the second will be between 2 March to 3 April.

There is usually a month-long break between the two phases of the Budget Session to allow parliamentary committees to examine budgetary allocations made to various ministries.

The President convenes both Houses of Parliament on the recommendation made by the Union Cabinet.

The budget session comes at a time when the Indian economy is facing a slowdown. On 7 January, the Ministry of Statistics released its advance estimate of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for the financial year 2019-20 to slow down to 5 percent when compared to 6.8 percent in the previous fiscal.

This first advance estimate is takes into account the figures available for the first nine months of the current fiscal.
The economic growth fell to 4.5 percent in the second quarter, the slowest in 6 years. The figure stood at 5 percent in the first quarter (April to June 2019).

Second advance estimates will be released post the presentation of the Budget.