Amidst the speculations over the last budget of the Narendra Modi government before the Lok Sabha polls, the Finance Ministry on Wednesday clarified that it will be called 'Interim Budget 2019-2020'. "The budget will be called Interim Budget 2019-20 and therefore, don't have any confusion on this issue," a Finance Ministry spokesperson said. The spokesperson's statement referred to what the Budget speech and documents will officially be titled.
The statement has come a day after a workshop of Press Information Bureau officers where they were reportedly told that the Budget will be titled as 'General Budget 2019-2020'. There were speculations among the markets and policy watchers that as the goverment is heading into Lok Sabha elections 2019 after losses in three state elections, the 2019-20 Budget could be more than just a vote-on-account.
According to the convention, Interim Budgets do not contain any direct tax proposals that might require an amendment to the Income Tax Act. The Finance Bills accompanying the interim Budget are short documents that are meant to extend the existing budgetary provisions from April 30 to July 31, during which the new or the returning government will have to prepare and present a Full Budget for the financial year.