The Union Budget for 2020 will be presented on 1st February, 2020. The Budget session of the Parliament will begin on 31st January at 11 am with a speech by President Ram Nath Kovind who will address a joint session of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Budget 2020 date, time and details:

The Budget Session of Parliament will be held in two phases from 31st January to 3rd April, according to recommendations by the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs. The first phase of the session will be from 31st January to 11th February and the second phase from 2nd March to 3rd April.

From 2017, the Centre brought the Budget forward to 1st February. It had also merged the railway budget with the Union Budget. As per tradition, the Budget will be presented by the finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman. Chief Economic Adviser KV Subramanian is likely to table the Economic Survey in the Rajya Sabha on 31st January. According to the Lok Sabha calendar, Union Budget 2020 will be presented in the Parliament on February 1 at 11 am.

1st February falls on a Saturday this year which is an off day for the Parliament. The Budget will be presented on Saturday this year and stock exchanges, which remain closed on weekends, will be open for business on that weekend.

How to watch Budget 2020 live:

Budget 2020 will be live-streamed on Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha TV. (This story will be updated with the live video links once they are active.)

What is the ‘Halwa ceremony’ ahead of the Budget?

The process of printing documents for the Budget 2020-21 began yesterday, 20th January, with the ritual ‘halwa ceremony’. ‘Halwa ceremony’ is a tradition where, ‘halwa’ is prepared in huge quantities in a large vessel and served to the entire staff in the Finance ministry.

After this ceremony, staff and individuals directly associated with printing and formulating the Budget, stay in the ministry and remain cut off from their families till the presentation of the Budget in the Lok Sabha. External contact through phone or any other form of communication, like e-mail is barred. This is done to ensure that there is no information leak about the Union Budget before its presentation by the Finance Minister.