No delay please

Union Budget date should not be postponed

Replying to the Election Commission of India (EC), the government has done well to stand by its decision to present the Union Budget on February 1. The EC had asked the government to respond by Tuesday on the question of delaying the Budget, following representations by several political parties seeking a postponement of the Budget date. The Opposition’s argument is that the Budget for 2017-18 is scheduled to be presented too close to Assembly elections in five states and, as such, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre might circumvent the EC’s model code of conduct and use the