Here’s why India will only have an interim budget on February 1

Every other year, the Indian Government presents the annual budget in February for the next financial year starting April.

The Finance Minister makes an annual budget speech on February 28 followed by detailed discussions in the Parliament leading to a vote on the proposals.

However, during the election year, it is held to be fair for the incoming government to make the final proposals. Therefore, the outgoing government can present a report card of its performance in the year gone by, and allocate funds for the day to day functioning of the government until the elections are over.

Traditionally, the interim budget, also called the vote on account, has not announced any sops.

A full budget, when presented by the new government within six months of the interim budget, will make concrete proposals on what policies it will implement and how money will be spent.

The first vote on account was presented in 1953 and since then there have 11 such interim budgets, of which five were by the outgoing governments and six were by the new governments as they all lacked enough time to present a full budget.