The Union budget for 2010-11 is likely to be presented on February 26, two days ahead of the usual date.
The new date has been mooted after it dawned on the government that February 28 — itself a Sunday — is sandwiched between Prophet Mohammad’s birthday (February 27), a government holiday, and Holi (March 1).

The government will present its annual budget on February 26 and was aiming at enacting legislation in the second half of this year for introducing a new Goods and Services Tax (GST), the finance minister said on Saturday.

Pranab Mukherjee also said he is hopeful growth rate of Asia’s third largest economy could touch 8 percent in the fiscal year to March 2010, faster than 6.7 percent in the previous year.

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee announced the rethink while speaking at the All India Conference on Tax Deduction at Source. He added that that the economy was generally looking up and signs were good. This would be Mukherjee’s first full-fledged budget in his current term as finance minister, having presented a budget in July 2009 soon after the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance’s general election victory in May.