The date of the presentation of the Union Budget for 2012-13 will hinge on the Election Commission's view on the matter.
The Government will soon initiate talks with the Election Commission to see if the Budget session of Parliament could commence in the last week of February 2012 and the general Budget could be presented on February 29 (the last day of February) as is customary.
“I will talk to the Election Commission on this in the next few days. We will have to wait for the opinion of the Election Commission,” Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal, Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, told presspersons today at Parliament House when asked if the presentation of the Railway and general Budget could get delayed in the wake of the Assembly polls in five States.
“It is difficult to say at this moment whether the general Budget presentation would happen on February 29 or not,” the Minister said.
If the general Budget presentation were not to happen on February 29, the Government may look at March 9-11 as alternative dates for presentation of the Railway Budget, the Economic Survey and the General Budget, sources in the Government said.
Polls in 5 states
The Election Commission had recently announced that Assembly polls will be held in Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Goa and Punjab.
While all the smaller States — Manipur, Goa, Uttarakhand and Punjab — will see a single-phase election, there will be seven phases of polling in Uttar Pradesh. While Manipur will have elections on January 28 next year, Uttarakhand and Punjab will go to vote on January 30. Polling in Uttar Pradesh will begin on February 3 and end on February 28. Goa is slated to go to the polls on March 3. Counting for all the five States will take place on March 4.
Earlier in the day, Mr Bansal laid the blame for the Lokpal fiasco at the Bharatiya Janata Party's door. He also maintained that the Government was committed to enacting a law to set up an anti-graft ombudsman in the Centre as well as the States. “We are committed to enacting the Lokpal. We want the law that is why we passed it in the Lok Sabha.”
Mr Bansal said the Lokpal Bill would be taken up for discussion and passage in the Rajya Sabha in the Budget session.
He refuted allegations that the entire Rajya Sabha debate on Lokpal was “choreographed” by the Congress.
“It was not choreographed by the Congress, it was choreographed by the BJP,” he said, adding that the Opposition brought in 187 amendments to the Lokpal Bill in the Rajya Sabha and the “amendments suggested were a mesh of confusing ideas”.