Jaitley resolute on advancing budget session to Feb 1

Mumbai: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday cleared the air on speculations around presentation of Union Budget 2017 in Parliament in first week of February.

He said that there is no such plan as yet to postpone the annual budgetary exercise. The government has announced that it will hold the Budget on February 1.

Jaitley’s clarification on holding Budget presentation comes in the backdrop of chief election commissioner Nasim Zaidi announcing dates for elections to five sate assemblies on Wednesday.

Jaitley added that due to announcement of assembly election dates and subsequently model code of conduct coming into force, several political parties approached government with an appeal to postponed Budget date.

Earlier in the day, CEC Nasim Zaid had also said that  country’s apex election body was considering an appeal by political parties to postpone the budget which does not seem to be happening as of now.