Budget 2026 Date And Time: The Union Budget for 2026 will be presented at 11 am on February 1, a Sunday, the Lok Sabha Speaker confirmed on Monday, January 12. The Budget presentation will adhere to the now-established
practice of being tabled at 11 am, a timing that has been followed in recent years.
February 1 has emerged as the standard date for the annual Budget exercise, with the Union Budget for 2025 also having been presented on the same day.
With this, it will be the first time in recent memory that the Union Budget is presented on a Sunday.
The 2026 Budget will be the ninth consecutive Union Budget presented by Nirmala Sitharaman, placing her among finance ministers with the longest uninterrupted Budget tenures. The forthcoming Budget is expected to lay out the government’s fiscal and economic priorities for the next financial year against the backdrop of changing domestic and global economic conditions.
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.
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.
Meanwhile, according to the government’s First Advance Estimates released on January 7, India’s real gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to grow at 7.4% in FY 2025-26 despite global challenges amid tariff war, which is higher than the 6.5% expansion recorded a year ago.
The advance estimates data is used in preparation of the Union Budget, which will be presented on February 1.
