Budget 2019: Finance Ministry Denies Reports of Full Budget

After the media reports been circulated that the Finance Ministry has instructed the staff to call the upcoming budget as ‘General Budget,’ the Ministry has clarified that there’s no such communication. 

“The Budget will be called Interim Budget 2019-20 and therefore, (we) don’t have any confusion on this issue,” DK Joshi, Official Spokesperson of Finance Ministry said. 

Terming the Budget as ‘General Budget’ means that the government is planning to roll out major policy changes, as opposed to the convention for the outgoing government to present an interim budget or a vote-on-account. 

In the absence of Arun Jaitley, Piyush Goyal shall present the Budget on Feb 1. 

In an interim Budget, the vote-on-account seeks parliament’s approval for incurring expenditure during a part of the fiscal year. The estimates are presented for the complete year as in the case of regular Budget. However, the newly formed government has full freedom to change the estimates when the final Budget is presented by them post the elections. 

The (about to exit) government usually refrains from introducing changes in policies through interim budget because of the fact that it has to be the custodian only for the next few months. However, there are presumptions of ruling party trying to introduce big-ticket changes through the election-year budget.