President Pranab Mukherjee to address joint sitting of Parliament today

The Budget session of Parliament will begin today and President Pranab Mukherjee will address the joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

The Economic Survey will also be tabled on the first day of the session. There will be no separate Rail budget from this year and it has been merged with the general budget which will be presented on Wednesday. The government had advanced the date of budget presentation so as to complete the entire process before the end of financial year.

The first part has been kept brief in view of ongoing assembly polls in five states. It will have eight sittings from 31st January to 9th of February, 2017. The two houses will have a month long recess from 10th February



to 8th March to enable the Standing Committees to consider the Demands for Grants of Ministries and Departments and prepare their Reports. The second part of the budget session will commence from 9th of March and will continue till 12th of April.

Apart from presentation of the general budget, 34 bills will be taken up for passing and consideration during the entire session. These include three ordinances which will be replaced through bills. The ordinances relate to Enemy Property, Payment of Wages and Specified Bank Notes.The other important legislations to be taken up include Goods and Services Tax, Central Goods and Services Tax ( Compensation for loss of revenue) and Integrated GST.