The Union Budget 2018-19 would be the last full Budget of the BJP-led NDA government before the 2019 General Elections.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government might present the common budget for the next fiscal year on February 1, 2018. This would be the first budget after the rolling out of the Goods and Services Tax bill (GST).
The Budget session of Parliament may begin on January 30 with President Ram Nath Kovind addressing the Joint Session of both the Houses of Parliament, a senior government official told PTI.
The Economic Survey, detailing the state of the economy, is likely to be tabled on January 31 and the Union Budget may be presented the following day, he said.
Analysts believe that in the wake of 2019 general elections the Centre would want to make the middle-class happy and would reduce the relevant income tax slabs. The Finance Ministry is also reportedly working on offering larger sops to pensioners as well as corporates in the 2018-2019 Union Budget.
The Centre would also likely to focus more on building 10 million houses for the poor, under the 'Housing for All' initiative, and work on the nationwide road-building programme after having implemented multiple reforms like GST and demonetisation, and simplified processes to improve ease of doing business, a report in Business Standard reported.
The Union Budget 2018-19 would be the last full Budget of the BJP-led NDA government before the 2019 General Elections. As per the practice, a vote-on-account or approval for essential government spending for a limited period is taken in the election year and a full-fledged budget presented by the new government.
While P Chidambaram had presented the previous UPA government's vote-on-account in February 2014, Jaitley had presented a full budget in July that year. This will be Jaitley's fifth Budget in a row.
With the preponement of Budget, ministries are now allocated their budgeted funds from the start of the financial year beginning April. This gives government departments more leeway to spend as well as allow companies time to adapt to business and taxation plans.
Previously, when the Budget was presented at the end of February, the three-stage Parliament approval process used to get completed some time in mid-May, weeks ahead of onset of monsoon rains. This meant government departments would start spending on projects only from August-end or September, after the monsoon season ended.
Besides advancing the presentation date, the Budget scrapped the Plan and non-Plan distinction as well.
(with inputs from PTI)
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 "Budget 2018: Govt may reduce tax slab, big bang reforms unlikely post GST rollout")
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