New Delhi: Union Budget 2026 is set to be presented on February 1 (Sunday) and the government is unlikely to make any changes to the schedule, CNBC-TV18 reported. This comes even as official announcement on the dates of the Budget Session of Parliament is still awaited.
Preparations for the Budget presentation are proceeding with February 1 as the scheduled date, the report said, citing sources. Typically every year, the budget is presented on February 1.
This will not be the first time a Budget will be presented during the weekend. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented Budget 2025 on a Saturday. Former FM Arun Jaitley presented Budget 2015 on February 28 (Saturday) and Budget 2016 on February 28 (Saturday).
Nirmala Sitharaman will break her own record and become the first Indian Finance Minister to present the Budget for the nine consecutive sessions. This will take her closer to the record of 10 budgets that were presented by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai over different time periods. Desai has presented a total of 6 budgets during his tenure as finance minister from 1959 to 1964, and 4 budgets between 1967 and 1969.
Former Finance Ministers P Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee had presented nine and eight budgets, respectively, under different Prime Ministers.
Sitharaman in 2019 was appointed as India’s first full-time woman finance minister when Prime Minister Modi won a decisive second term. After PM Modi came back to power in 2024 for the third time, Sitharaman continued to retain her finance portfolio.
