The second part of the Budget session of Parliament will commence from Monday with all COVID-19 precautionary measures in place. The Rajya Sabha will function from 9 am to 2 pm while Lok Sabha will function between 4 pm to 10 pm. The second part of the session will conclude April 8, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had informed. The Budget Session of Parliament, which commenced with the address of President Ram Nath Kovind on January 29, concluded on February 29. The Union budget was tabled in the Parliament by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1. The Lok Sabha clocked 99.5 per cent productivity during the first phase of the two-part Budget session of Parliament, Lok Sabha Secretariat said. Birla informed that during the first part of the Budget Session 2021, Lok Sabha sat for 49 hours and 17 minutes against the stipulated time of 50 hours.
As the Rajya Sabha proceedings began on Wednesday, Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Jairam Ramesh said that the time to discuss the Union Budget should be increased from 10 to 12 hours. There is a lot of interest among the members in discussing the Budget. My suggestion is that increase the time to debate the Budget from 10 hours to 12 hours, said Ramesh. The chairperson M Venkaiah Naidu said that he will see into it . The House also gave obituary reference and observed silence in respect of Mahendra Bahadur Singh who represented Madhya Pradesh. Rajya Sabha proceedings began for the day chaired by M Venkaiah Naidu. The first part of the budget session will conclude on February 13.
India’s Union Budget 2021–22 and fiscal policy
10 February 2021
Author: Alok Sheel, ICRIER
Government expenditure is estimated to be 17.7 per cent of GDP in 2020–21, a sharp increase from 13.2 per cent in 2019–20 and 12.5 per cent in 2018–19. From a macroeconomic perspective, the focus areas are the robustness of nominal GDP and revenue growth assumptions, the budget deficit including the stimulus component and whether the stimulus is of optimal structure and scale to bolster growth. Fiscal policy is critically important in circumstances when monetary policy is constrained by impaired bank and corporate balance sheets.
The nominal GDP growth of 14.5 per cent in 2021–22 implicit in budget projections seem reasonable considering the economy is expected to rebound on the back of sharp contraction.
Read more about Union Budget 2021: Nirmala Sitharaman reaches Ministry of Finance on Business Standard. MoS Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur has also arrived at the Ministry of Finance
All eyes are fixed on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as she is set to present Union Budget 2021-22 in Parliament on Monday, at a time when India is recovering from the COVID-19 crisis. The Budget presentation will begin with a speech from Finance Minister scheduled to take place at around 11 am. Ahead of her third Budget presentation, the Finance Minister and her team will meet President Ram Nath Kovind, and will likely be accompanied by her deputy Anurag Thakur and other officials of the Finance Ministry. The Union Cabinet will hold a meeting at 10:15 am before the presentation. Usually, the duration of the presentation ranges from 90 to 120 minutes.