The Parliament Budget sessions began on Friday morning (January 29) and the President of India Ram Nath Kovind addressed the joint sitting of both the Houses. It is known that 16 parties had already called for a boycott of the President’s address.
“Joint session of Parliament amid Coronavirus pandemic is essential. It’s a new year and a new decade and we’re also entering into the 75th year of Independence. Today, all MPs are present here with message and trust that however tough be the challenge neither we nor India will stop. In this fight against the pandemic, we lost many citizens. Former President Pranab Mukherjee passed away in this Corona period. Six MPs left us untimely due to Covid-19. I pay my tribute to all of them. I am satisfied that the timely decision taken by my Government saved the lives of lakhs of citizens. Today the number of new Covid-19 cases is going down rapidly. The number of recoveries is very high. It is a matter of pride that India is running the biggest vaccination program in the world. Both vaccines of this program are made in India. In this crisis, India shouldered its responsibility towards mankind and provided lakhs of doses of vaccines to several nations. The national flag and a holy day like Republic Day were insulted in the past few days. The Constitution that provides us Freedom of Expression is the same Constitution that teaches us that law and rules have to be followed seriously,” President Ram Nath Kovind said in his address as the Budget session of Parliament commenced today.
February 1st: Union Budget 2021
Following President’s address to the joint sitting of the Parliament, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Economic Survey, authored by Krishnamurthy Subramanian (Chief Economic Advisor). Usually, the Economic Survey is tabled in the Parliament two days ahead of the Union Budget presentation by the Finance Minister. This year, the Union Budget would be presented in Digital Format. It is learnt that as soon as the Finance Minister tables the official Budget documents in the Parliament, the Budget would be made available in an online format.
On February 1st, the Union Fin Min Nirmala Sitharaman will table the Union Budget 2021-2022. The session will be held from January 29 to February 15 and March 8 to April 8, comprising of a total of 33 sittings. With the Coronavirus precautions in place, the timings would be 9 AM to 2 PM and 4 PM to 9 PM.
