- Union Budget is an annual report which contains the government's revenue and expenditure for a particular fiscal year, which runs from April 1 to March 31.
- It consolidates revenues from all sources and outlays for all activities.
- Budget is prepared by the budget division in the Ministry of Finance after consulting with other ministries.
- It is tabled in Parliament by the finance minister.
- The Budget comprises of Budget speech, annual financial statement, finance bill, demand for grants and macroeconomic framework.
- From economists to tax experts, all eyes remain on Budget announcements for any signs of changes in policy in the coming period.
- An interim budget is followed by another budget by the new government. The last interim budget was presented on February 17, 2014 by the then finance minister P Chidambaram. It was followed by a full-year budget on July 10, 2014.
- Until the year 1999, the Union Budget was announced at 5 pm on the last working day of February. Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha changed the budget presentation ritual by announcing the 1999 Union Budget at 11 am.
- Till 2016, the railway budget was presented a few days before the Union budget. However, in September 2016, the government scrapped the 92-year-old practice of presenting rail budgets and general budgets separately. Arun Jaitley became the first finance minister to present a combined Union Budget with Rail Budget in 2017.
- This year's Budget will also include announcements for the Railways.
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