Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to present Union Budget 2026 on Sunday, Feb 1

The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA), chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, has approved the schedule for the upcoming Budget Session of Parliament. As per the parliamentary calendar, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to present the Union Budget for 2026–27 on Sunday (February 1). This marks a rare occasion, as the Union Budget will be presented on a Sunday for the first time in recent years.

The Budget Session of Parliament will start with the President’s address to a joint sitting on January 28. A day later, on January 29, the Economic Survey will be presented in Parliament. The session will be held in two phases. The first part will run from January 28 to February 13. The second part is scheduled from March 9 to April 2.

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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to present her ninth Union Budget in a row. This will also be the 88th Union Budget since India gained Independence. Since 2017, the Union Budget has been presented at 11 am on February 1. Earlier, it was traditionally presented on February 28. The change was introduced by former finance minister Arun Jaitley to allow budget decisions to be implemented faster from the start of the new financial year.

Presenting the budget on a weekend is not new. Sitharaman had presented the Budget in 2025 on a Saturday. Before that, Arun Jaitley had presented the Budgets of 2015 and 2016 on February 28, which also fell on Saturdays. With this, Sitharaman will make history by becoming the first finance minister to present nine consecutive Union Budgets. She will move closer to the record of former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who presented 10 Budgets in total across two different terms.