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The government is unlikely to advance the Budget to Saturday, January 31, while Monday, February 2, remains a fallback option if a Sunday presentation is avoided, says a report.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting her eighth consecutive Union Budget, which will also be the 80th Budget since Independence.
Union Budget 2026-27 Date: With the countdown to the Union Budget 2026-27 underway, an unusual calendar coincidence has occurred this time: February 1, 2026, falls on a Sunday. Since the Narendra Modi government shifted the Budget presentation date to February 1 in 2017, the question has never arisen. This time, however, the issue arises and is being examined.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting her eighth consecutive Union Budget, which will also be the 80th Budget since Independence. Whether it will be tabled on a Sunday is now the subject of speculation.
Will the Budget be presented on February 1 (Sunday)?
According to a report by Business Standard, the government is inclined to stick to the February 1 convention, even though the date falls on a Sunday in 2026. So, presenting the Budget on Sunday remains a possibility.
When asked about the issue, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the matter will be decided by the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs at an appropriate time.
One added complication is that Guru Ravidas Jayanti will also fall on February 1, 2026. However, according the Business Standard report citing sources, this is not a central government “public holiday”. It is observed as a public holiday only in some north Indian states, including Delhi and Haryana, while for the central government, it is classified as a “restricted holiday”. Restricted holidays, as per parliamentary convention, do not automatically prevent sittings of Parliament.
According to the Rajya Sabha’s website, “In fixing the sittings, restricted holidays in the Government of India offices are not taken into account and sittings may be fixed on those days.”
A similar situation arose in 2025, when Guru Ravidas Jayanti fell during the Budget Session on February 12 (Wednesday), and the two Houses did not have a sitting on account of it.
According to BS, Parliament has met on Sundays before under special circumstances, during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and on May 13, 2012, to mark the 60th anniversary of Parliament’s first sitting. There have also been occasions when the Houses sat on public holidays such as Buddha Purnima.
That said, there have also been exceptions. The Rajya Sabha website records that sittings scheduled on Guru Ravidas Jayanti were cancelled in the past, in 1981 and 1986, following interventions by members and directions from the Chair. This mixed precedent explains why the final call is still open.
As per Business Standard citing the sources, the government is unlikely to advance the Budget to Saturday, January 31, while Monday, February 2, remains a fallback option if a Sunday presentation is avoided.
Since 2017, the Union Budget has been presented on February 1 to allow faster passage of the Finance Bill and ensure smoother implementation from April 1, the start of the financial year. In both 2020 and 2025, Sitharaman presented the Budget on February 1, which happened to fall on Saturdays.
If the Budget is indeed presented on Sunday, February 1, 2026, it would mark the first such instance since the date change in 2017, and add another first to Sitharaman’s record, matching Morarji Desai’s tally of eight Budgets, but doing so consecutively, under one Prime Minister and two successive governments.
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December 20, 2025, 10:48 IST
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