The Election Commission has sought clarifications about the budgetary process followed by the government in 2012 when presentation of the Union Budget was delayed due to Assembly elections. The EC has also sought details on the process involved in preparing and presenting the Budget.
Incidentally, in 2012, the then UPA government agreed to postpone the presentation of the Budget to March 16 at the request of the Opposition. This was because of Assembly elections in five States scheduled to take place at that time.
Back then, the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) met under Pranab Mukherjee, then the Finance Minister, and recommended to the President that the Budget session of Parliament be convened from March 12.
The Cabinet Secretary has now been given till Friday to respond to the EC’s letter sent to him on Wednesday.
This is the second time that the Commission has written to the Cabinet Secretary on this issue. Earlier this month, a day after the Commission announced elections to five State assemblies, an 11-member opposition delegation had met the Chief Election Commissioner on the issue of deferring the presentation of the Union Budget as the change in the date for the presentation of the Budget had raised apprehensions among them that the government may make some Budget announcements which could influence voters in the poll bound States. Following this meeting with the opposition parties the Commission had sought a reply from the Cabinet Secretary on the issue.
The Cabinet Secretary in his response of January 10 is believed to have said that the Union Budget is an annual exercise and covers the entire country, and not a few States. In its response the government also said that the date of presenting the Budget had been advanced to February 1 as it would ensure that all budgetary provisions were allocated to different sectors from April 1, the beginning of the new fiscal.
Even as the Commission wrote to the government seeking an explanation on January 7, the government slated the start of Budget session of Parliament for January 31.
The EC announced on January 4 that polls in five States — Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Goa and Punjab — will be held from February 11 to March 8. The counting of votes will take place on March 11.
In a break from an over 100-year-old practice, this year, the Modi government has decided to shift the date of presenting the Union Budget to February 1 from end-February. It has also decided to do away with the practice of having a separate Railway Budget, with the railway estimates forming a part of the main Budget this year.