Budget 2026 Likely on Sunday; CCPA Meeting Today to Finalise Date.
The Centre is expected to take a final call on the date for presenting the Union Budget 2026-27 at a Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) meeting scheduled later today, January 7, according to sources cited by Moneycontrol.
The government is reportedly inclined to stick to February 1, which, if confirmed, would mark the first time the Union Budget is presented on a Sunday. Preparations are already underway, with the date considered tentative pending formal approval.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her eighth consecutive Budget, which will also be the 80th Budget since Independence. The budget session of Parliament is expected to begin on January 28 with the customary presidential address to a joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The exact timing and sequence of the session will be finalised once the CCPA approves the date.
Since 2017, the government has followed the practice of presenting the Budget at 11 am on February 1, a shift from the earlier February 28 schedule, first implemented under former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to allow quicker implementation of budgetary proposals.
Presenting the Budget on a weekend is not unprecedented. Sitharaman presented the 2025 Budget on a Saturday, while Jaitley presented the 2015 and 2016 Budgets on Saturdays.
If the February 1 schedule holds, Sitharaman will become the first finance minister to present nine consecutive Budgets, moving closer to the record of former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who presented 10 Budgets across two tenures. Former finance ministers P. Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee had presented nine and eight Budgets, respectively.
Sitharaman, appointed India’s first full-time woman finance minister in 2019, continues to hold the portfolio following the Modi government’s third consecutive term in 2024.
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