Govt to present its first Union Budget on July 10, Railway Budget on July 8

The Rail Budget will be presented on July 8, while the Economic Survey will be released on July 9, the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) decided on Monday at a meeting held in parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu's chamber in Parliament House.

The CCPA, headed by home minister Rajnath Singh, decided that bills to replace ordinances, including the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities (Amendment) Ordinance, the one on Polavaram project, the TRAI Act (Amendment) Ordinance and the one on SEBI, will be brought on a priority basis for consideration in the session, official sources said.

The ordinances have to be converted into bills before third week of July.

The over month-long session will have a total of 28 sittings.

The vote-on-account budget approved by the previous Parliament ends on July 31 and a new budget has to be in place before that date.

The opposition is likely to rake up the issue of hike in rail passenger fares and freight rates ahead of the presentation of the Rail Budget.

Naidu had recently said that the election of Deputy Speaker will take place during the Budget session.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has already said that she would take a decision on the issue of the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha before the Budget session.

Congress, which lacks the requisite numbers, is seeking the post claiming that it is the single largest party in the opposition benches and its pre-poll alliance -- UPA -- has together more than the adequate numbers to claim the post.

India's previous government presented an interim budget for 2014/15 to Parliament on Feb. 17, ahead of national elections to cover expenditure until a new administration was installed. (Hindustan Times)