By now everyone must be knowing that Union Budget for 2017-2018 was presented by Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley on 01st February 2017. However very few of us know that how this budget was different than all the budgets which had been presented over years in India.

Let’s have a look:

Union and railway budget presented in advance: Budget in India were normally announced in the last week of February or in the month of March until the year 2016. However this year, for the first time, announcement of the budget took place in the 1st week of February. One of the objective is facilitating the development work.

Railway budget and union budget presented on same day: The largest transport company in India had a history of presenting the rail budget before the union budget. But in 2017, both these budgets were announced on the same day.

Railway minister did not present the rail budget: Until 2016, the railway budget was presented in the parliament by the Railway minister. However this 92 year old tradition was changed in 2017 budget, as the presentation of rail budget was given by Finance minister Shri Arun Jailey and not Shri Suresh Prabhu, who is the current railway minister.

Economic survey: Since union budget was presented nearly a month in advance, the economic survey date was also preponed and was announced on 31st January 2017.

Read interesting facts on Indian budget.

Digital budget: This year’s budget was presented in a paperless format. Every year hard copies of the circulars are released by the government in paper format and passed on to all the member of parliaments. However in 2017, all the important documents will be made available through Union Budget Information System (UBIS).