Cabinet Secy to hold series of meetings on budget proposals

New Delhi: Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha will hold a series of meetings starting January 11 with secretaries of all ministries to discuss the proposals for the 2017-18 Budget to be presented by the Finance Minister.

The budget session of the Parliament is scheduled to begin from January 31 and the 2017-18 Budget will be presented on February 1, amidst elections in five states, including Uttar Pradesh.

According to sources, the sector-wise discussions will be held from January 11, which would spread over for three-four days. "The inputs from these meetings will be further discussed with the Prime Minister."The proposals submitted submitted by the eight Group of Secretaries to the Prime Minister last week, will be discussed again for incorporation in the upcoming Budget.

Secretaries have also been asked to provide key points from each sector that could be part of the Budget speech of the Finance Minister.

Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry is also seeking views regarding the upcoming Budget on twitter. Earlier, the government had invited comments from public on Budget, which unveils the governments priorities and spending pattern over the fiscal.

This time, railway budget for the 2017-18 fiscal is being merged with the General Budget and will be presented a month before so that full budgetary funds are available to ministries on April 1, at the start of the new fiscal.

Both plan and non-plan distintion will be done away from the central and state budgets from 2017-18 fiscal. A working group set up by the Finance Minisry has already prepared a Guidance note on plan and non-plan merger and circulated to all central ministries and states.

The ministry is in the process of taking necessary approvals from relevant authorities for merger of these two components in the budget.

The government wants to complete the entire budget process before March 31, 2017.