(Image source from: financialexpress.com)

The Union Budget is the annual financial report of India as a result of the estimation of the income and the expenditure of the government on a periodical basis.

The Finance Minister of India, Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting the Union Budget for the year 2020- 2021 and it is said to be presented on the 1st of February 2020. the Economic Survey of the year 2019-2020 is said to be released a day before the presentation of the Union Budget i.e., the economic survey of the previous year has been released on 31st of January.

The Union Budget for the years 2020-2021 would be the second budget of Nirmala Sitharaman as the Finance Minister of India and it is also said to be the second budget of Narendra Modi led NDA government’s second term.

Although the Budget is said to be presented on the 1st of February, there exists shortage of two key officials in the budget- making team of the Finance Ministry.

The two key officials include a full- time Expenditure Secretary being one of the key officials. The post of the Expenditure Secretary has been left vacant after appointing G.C. Murmu as the first Lt Governor of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir that has been newly created and therefore G.C. Murmu had to relinquish the post of Expenditure Secretary.

The other key official in addition to the Expenditure Secretary that the budget- making team of the Finance Ministry fell short of is the Joint Secretary, Budget that is said to have been vacant for almost three months until Rajat Kumar Mishra has been appointed as the Joint Secretary, Budget in late January.

By Shrithika Kushangi