UPDATE: Union Budget to be presented on July 6

The budget session of Parliament will commence from July 2 and the General Budget for 2009-10 will be presented to the Lok Sabha on July six.  

The schedule for the budget session of Parliament was decided at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here today.  

The Railway Budget will be presented by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on July three.        

The session, which will start from July two with the presentation of the Economic Survey, would last till August seven.       

The Government hopes to pass the budget before July 31 to avoid the need for a fresh vote-on-account.       

Presentation of the Economic Survey, the Railway Budget and the Union Budget would be followed by a discussion on the demands for grants of select ministries.

The Union Cabinet decided to recommend the dates of the budget session and the schedule to President Pratibha Patil.  This will be the first budget of the UPA government in its second term at the Centre.        

Last week, the Prime Minister had written to the Finance Ministry to ensure that the Budget "adequately and appropriately" reflect the government's priorities set out in Patil's address to the joint sitting of Parliament.        

In her address, the President had highlighted the UPA government's ambitious agenda like providing rice or wheat at Rs 3 per kg for BPL families, enlarging the coverage of the rural employment guarantee scheme and giving more focus on building infrastructure to bring the economy back on the high growth track.