Budget 2023: Why is Union Budget presented on February 1 every year?

Union Budget is presented by Finance Minister every year on February 1. This year too, FM Nirmala Sitharam will present the budget on Wednesday (February 1). But till a few years ago, the budget was presented every year at the end of February.

This tradition was changed in 2017, when then finance minister Arun Jaitley presented the budget for the first time on February 1. Since then, the tradition of presenting the budget on February 1 continues. Back then, it was also decided that there will not be a separate Railway Budget.

But have you ever wondered why there was a need to change the budget date? There is a special reason behind changing the budget date. As the budget was presented on the last date of February, it used to be difficult to implement the provisions of the budget from the next financial year which begins on April 1. 

To get rid of this problem, the budget date was changed and it was presented at the beginning of February instead of the end of February.

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Not just that, till 1999, the budget used to be presented at 5 pm. But the then NDA government changed the timing of the budget to 11 am. This tradition was going on since the British period. 

During British India, the budget was presented in Britain at 11 am (local time) which was at 5 pm in India. This tradition did not change even after independence.

But while presenting the budget for the financial year 1999-2000, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha in the NDA government changed this tradition and presented it at 11 am on 27 February 1999. Since then the budget is presented every year at 11 am.