Union Budget set for Sunday, February 1 as calendar cleared

NEW DELHI: India’s biggest financial day may arrive with a weekend twist. The Union Budget 2026–27 is likely to be presented on 1 February, which falls on a Sunday, according to media reports, after the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs approved the Parliament calendar. If confirmed, it would mark the first time the budget is delivered on a Sunday, giving tradition a gentle nudge aside.

The budget Session of Parliament will begin on January 28 with the President’s address to a joint sitting of both Houses. The Economic Survey, which sets the mood music for budget day, is scheduled to be tabled on January 29.

All eyes will again be on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who is poised to present her eighth consecutive Union Budget. That feat would make her the first finance minister in India’s history to deliver eight budgets in a row. The upcoming exercise will also be the 80th Union Budget since Independence.

Since 2017, the budget has been presented on February 1 at 11 am, a shift designed to speed up the rollout of policies from the start of the new financial year. While a Sunday budget would be a first, weekend presentations are not entirely new. Sitharaman presented the 2025 budget on a Saturday, and former finance minister Arun Jaitley delivered budgets on Saturdays in 2015 and 2016.

With eight budgets, Sitharaman moves closer to the record held by Morarji Desai, who presented 10 budgets across two stints. Among more recent finance ministers, P Chidambaram presented nine budgets, while Pranab Mukherjee delivered eight.

Appointed India’s first full-time woman finance minister in 2019, Sitharaman has retained the portfolio through three consecutive terms of the Narendra Modi government. If the Sunday schedule holds, budget day this year will come with fewer office commutes, but no shortage of attention.