Budget 2017: Second phase to be conducted from March 9 to April 12

Second phase of the Budget Session will be conducted from March 9 to April 22. The first phase, which was advanced by a month and presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on February 1, did not introduce any big bang reform. However, it was hailed by the Dalal street which gained 486 points to close at a three-month high of 28,142 on the day of its presentation. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi touted it to fulfil "the dreams of every section", it was called "disappointing and directionless" by those on the other end of the political spectrum.

Second phase of Budget Session will start on 9 March and will end on 12 April.

— ANI (@ANI_news) February 9, 2017

After hitting citizens all across with the hammer of demonetization, Jaitley performed a more pro-poor clean up job with the introduction of tax sops, sticking to fiscal prudence, abolishing Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) amongst other measures. The budget broadly focused on ten themes--the farming sector, the rural population, the youth, the poor and underprivileged health care, infrastructure, the financial sector for stronger institutions, speedy accountability, public services, prudent fiscal management and tax administration for the honest-- and set the agenda of the next fiscal to 'transform, energise and clean India'.

This years Union Budget was the first for many. It did away with the 92-year old legacy of presenting a separate Rail and Union budget. Furthermore, unlike previous years, the budget was presented a month in advance to get a legislative approval for annual spending plans and tax proposals before the new financial year which starts in April.