Is the FY 2026-27 Budget's Sunday presentation a First for India?

New Delhi: Like every year, the budget for the financial year 2026-27 is set to be presented on February 1, but this time this budget is special in some ways. Usually, the Parliament session is not held on Saturday and Sunday, whereas this time the date of presentation of the budget falls on Sunday. Until a few days back, people had doubts about whether the budget would be presented this time on Sunday or not. After the official announcement made by the central government, it became clear that the budget would be presented on February 1. Is this going to happen for the first time that the budget is being presented on a Sunday. Let’s see…

Is the budget being presented on Sunday for the first time in the country? The answer is — yes. Never before has the budget been presented on the last day of a week. A similar coincidence occurred during the tenure of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1999. At that time the budget was presented on 28th February and thai day was falling on Sunday. However, the then Finance Minister Yashwant Singh presented the budget one day earlier i.e. on Saturday, 27th February.

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The tradition of presenting the budget on 1 February began in the year 2017. Earlier, the budget was presented on the last day of February i.e. 28th February. This change was made during the tenure of the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, so that the budget proposals could be implemented before the new financial year starting from 1 April.

Although the budget will be presented for the first time in the country on Sunday, it is not new to present the budget on the weekend. Prior to this, the budget has been presented many times on Saturday. After Yashwant Singh, then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the budgets for the financial year 2015-16 and 2016-17 on Saturday. Besides this, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also presented the budget for the financial year 2025-26 on Saturday itself.

Budget session schedule

The budget session will be held in two phases

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First phase: 28 January to 13 February 2026

Phase 2:9 March to 2 April 2026