Budget 2026 To Be Presented On Sunday? CCPA Meeting Likely Today To Finalise Date

The Centre is likely to take a final call on the date of presentation of the Union Budget for 2026-27 at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) scheduled to be held later today,

January 7, Moneycontrol has reported, citing sources.

The government is inclined to stick to February 1 for presenting the Budget, which, if approved, would make it the first time that the Union Budget is presented on a Sunday. While the decision is yet to be formally cleared, a CNBC-TV18 report earlier said preparations are already underway, keeping February 1 as the tentative date.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting her eighth consecutive Union 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 address by the President to the joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. The timing and sequencing of the session, including the date of the budget presentation, will be finalised once the CCPA gives its approval.

Since 2017, the government has followed the practice of presenting the Union Budget at 11 am on February 1, after advancing it from the earlier tradition of February 28. The shift was first implemented during the tenure of former finance minister Arun Jaitley, with the aim of ensuring quicker implementation of budgetary proposals from the start of the new financial year.

However, presenting the Budget on a weekend would not be unprecedented. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had presented the Budget 2025 on a Saturday, while former finance minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budgets of 2015 and 2016 on February 28, both Saturdays.

If the schedule holds, Sitharaman will also create history by becoming the first finance minister to present nine consecutive Union Budgets, further cementing her position among India’s longest-serving finance ministers. This would bring her closer to the record held by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who presented a total of 10 Budgets across two stints — six between 1959 and 1964, and four between 1967 and 1969.

Among other recent finance ministers, P Chidambaram had presented nine Budgets, while Pranab Mukherjee presented eight Budgets during their respective tenures under different prime ministers.

Sitharaman was appointed India’s first full-time woman finance minister in 2019, following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s return to power for a second term. She continued to hold the finance portfolio after the Modi government secured a third consecutive term in 2024.