General budget on 10 July; rail budget slated for 8 July

The budget session of Parliament will begin on 7 July and the Narendra Modi government will present its first general budget on 10 July, leaving enough time for discussion on the budget till the session ends on 14 August.

The rail budget will be presented on 8 July, to be followed by the release of the Economic Survey on 9 July.

The decision was made at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) today.

The CCPA, headed by home minister Rajnath Singh, also decided to table bills to replace ordinances, including the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities (Amendment) Ordinance, the one on the Polavaram project, the TRAI Act (Amendment) Ordinance and the one to empower SEBI, on a priority basis for Parliament's consideration.

The ordinances have to be converted into bills before third week of July, beyond which the bills would lapse.

The meeting held in the chamber of parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu, in Parliament House also took stock of the issues like the rail fare hike and the appointment of the deputy speaker during the session.

The vote-on-account budget approved by the previous Parliament on 17 February ends on 31 July and a new budget for the 2014-15 fiscal has to be in place before that.

The over month-long session will have a total of 28 sittings and the opposition is likely to rake up the issue of hike in rail passenger fares and freight rates ahead of the presentation of the rail budget.

The opposition, which is yet to be accorded official status, would also be an issue of contention during the over a month-long session.

The Congress party, which lacks the requisite numbers, is seeking the post claiming that it is the single largest party in the opposition benches and the UPA, its pre-poll alliance has more than the adequate numbers to claim the post.