"Union Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman will start her #PreBudget2023 consultations with different stakeholder Groups from tomorrow, 21st Nov 2022, in New Delhi, in connection with the forthcoming Union Budget 2023-24. The meetings will be held virtually," said in a tweet.
"Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman will be holding her 1st #PreBudget2023 consultations with the of captains from Industry and experts of #Infrastructure and #ClimateChange in two groups, tomorrow, 21st Nov. 2022, in forenoon and afternoon," the ministry said in another tweet.
The requirement of funds for all categories of expenditures along with receipts of Ministries/ Departments will be discussed during the pre-budget meetings, the ministry had said earlier. "Requirement of funds for all categories of expenditures along with receipts of Ministries/ Departments will be discussed during the pre-budget meetings," the Budget Division of the finance ministry had said.
Final ceilings will be decided separately by the Ministry of Finance latest by January 10, 2023, after an assessment of fiscal space, it added. In financial parlance, the maximum permitted level in a financial transaction is called the ceiling.
It will be the fifth Budget of the Narendra Modi 2.0 government and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and the last full Budget before the general elections due in April-May 2024.
During the election year, the government presents Vote on Account for the limited period. Usually, the Budget is cleared till July.
The Budget 2023-24 is likely to be presented on February 1, during the first half of Parliament's Budget session which usually begins in the last week of January every year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government scrapped the colonial-era tradition of presenting the Budget at the end of February. The then finance minister Arun Jaitley had for the first time presented the annual accounts on February 1, 2017.
With the change in the date of Budget presentation, ministries are now allocated their budgeted funds from the start of a financial year beginning April. This gives government departments more leeway to spend as well as allow companies time to adapt to business and taxation plans.
Previously, when Budget was presented at the end of February, the three-stage Parliament approval process would get completed some time in mid-May, weeks ahead of the onset of monsoon rains.
This meant government departments would start spending on projects only from August-end or September, after the monsoon season ended.
