Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to present Union Budget today

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget 2022 today at 11 am in the Lok Sabha. Like last year, this year also the budget will be presented in a paperless format.

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget 2022 today at 11 am in the Lok Sabha. Like last year, this year also the budget will be presented in a paperless format.

There was a deviation from tradition last year when the Finance Minister arrived at the Parliament for the presentation of the Budget with a tablet instead of the traditional 'bahi-khata' (ledger). Last year Sitharaman's Budget speech turned out to be the longest in India's Parliamentary history. The duration of her presentation was 2 hours and 40 minutes.

This year the Halwa Ceremony(distribution of sweets) was not held due to Covid-19 protocols. It was held in a symbolic way and the core staff included in the Budget team were given sweets instead of Halwa. The Budget Session of the Parliament commenced on Monday with the President's address to both Houses of the Parliament following which the Economic Survey report was presented by the Finance Minister.

The Economic Survey stated that India's economy is projected to grow at the rate of 8 to 8.5 per cent in the next financial year. It claimed that the growth in 2022-23 will be supported by largescale vaccination coverage, robust growth in export, gains from supply-side reforms, easing of regulations and availability of fiscal space to ramp up capital spending.

The first part of the Budget Session is expected to be adjourned on February 11. The second part of the Budget Session is expected to start on March 14 and will likely be adjourned on April 8. The Union Budget will be presented at a time when the country is passing through the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic where the highly contagious Omicron variant has become the dominant strain.