Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman
| Photo Credit: PTI

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget for the upcoming year on Saturday, February 1, 2025. The first part of the Budget session will begin on January 31 and conclude on February 13, 2025. The second part will begin on March 10 and end on April 4, 2025.

The Union Budget 2025 will be Ms. Sitharaman’s second budget speech in the Narendra Modi-led NDA 3.0 government and her eighth budget in Parliament. She has presented six annual and two interim budgets throughout the NDA government’s term in office, the most of any of her predecessors, including Manmohan Singh, Arun Jaitley, P. Chidambaram, Yashwant Sinha, and Morarji Desai.

When to watch

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her Budget speech in the Lok Sabha at 11 a.m., on Saturday (February 1, 2025). She will be outlining budgetary allocations and revenue expectations for the financial year 2025-26. The Budget documents will be tabled in Rajya Sabha after the speech gets over in the lower house.

Where to watch

To catch the live streaming of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget speech, viewers can tune in to Sansad TV, the television channel that is dedicated for the parliamentary proceedings. India’s official public broadcaster Doordarshan’s news channel DD News will also telecast the speech.

Sansad TV will also run live streams on its YouTube channel.

The Hindu will be running live blogs for the Budget speech, political, industry and market reactions, along with in-depth articles, viewpoints from experts, and data analyses among others. The Hindu’s Budget coverage can be accessed in the Budget section.

Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav sought to compare Union Budget 2023 with previous Budgets. 
| Photo Credit: PTI

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday said the Centre has cheated Bihar in the Union Budget 2023-24 and fooled the people of the State.

“Bihar is a backward State. The Prime Minister and the Centre had made commitments to grant Bihar a special package and status several times before but nothing has been done so far. They have only fooled the people of Bihar and cheated us,” Mr. Yadav said while speaking to mediapersons in Patna.

He also sought to compare Wednesday’s Budget with previous Budgets. “There are lots of differences between previous Budgets and this Budget. People should know about the revenue and expenditure and they should be told from where the money is coming and where it is going… but they are not”, said Mr. Yadav.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is currently undertaking a ‘Samadhan Yatra’ (solution journey) across the State, said he couldn’t listen to the Budget speech as the yatra was pre-scheduled. “Once I wrap up today’s yatra, I will get to know the details,” Mr. Kumar told mediapersons in Supaul.

However, Finance Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary, who was alongside Mr. Kumar, said the State’s demands were not met in the Budget. “The people of Bihar had a lot of expectations from the Budget but the Centre has again cheated the State,” said Mr. Choudhary.

The Congress also echoed similar views. Senior State Congress leader Ajit Sharma said, “Bihar has got nothing in the Budget and the people of Bihar have been cheated once again,” said.

Opposition BJP leaders termed the Budget “pro-people”. “It’s a balanced and pro-people Budget which will benefit all sections of people in the country,” said Vijay Kumar Sinha, BJP leader and Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly.