Govt calls all party meeting to seek views on rescheduling budget session

The government has called an all-party meeting on Thursday to seek views about a possible rescheduling of the Budget session in view of the coming Assembly polls.

Elections to Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Assam, and Puducherry, are due by April. Several members of Parliament (MPs) have conveyed to the government that their attendance might be intermittent in Parliament as the session would coincide with campaigning and voting in these states. The five states send as many as 115 MPs to the Lok Sabha.


The cabinet committee on political affairs, headed by Union home minister Rajnath Singh, would also meet on Thursday to decide on the Budget session. The all-party meeting is scheduled before the cabinet committee’s meeting.

The Budget session usually begins in the last week of February and the Budget is presented on the last working day of the month, February 29 this time. The session has a month-long break before Holi and meets again in the third week of April.

The government claims to be keen that the goods and services tax (GST) Constitution amendment Bill is passed in the Budget session. This could enable the government to roll out the GST regime by the middle of the financial year. On Sunday, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu had said the government was open to discussions on the suicide of Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula as also its decision to put Arunachal Pradesh under President’s Rule. He had said the government would talk to other political parties to see if the session could be advanced.