Union Budget 2025 Nirmala Sitharaman to present on February 1? Check timings and other details.

New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to present the Union Budget 2025 on February 1, going by the usual convention of presenting the budget on the first day of February for the past several years. Although the date of budget presentation has not been officially confirmed, it is more likely that the government will maintain the convention of presenting it on February 1.

The convention of presenting the Union Budget on February 1 was started by the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in 2017. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, led by FM Jaitley, decided to do away with the old tradition of presenting the budget on the last working day of February. The government also broke the tradition of presenting a separate railway budget, which had been good for 92 years.

Timings of Union Budget 2025

As per the usual budget presentation time, FM Seetha Raman is expected to stay till 11 am as the time to deliver his speech.

In the olden days, the budget came out at 5 pm on the last working day of February. However, during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government, in 1999 the then Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha presented the Union Budget at 11 am instead. And since then, the budget tabling hours have been reduced to 11 am.

Union Budget 2025: Stock exchanges will remain open on February 1.

Indian stock exchanges will remain open for trading on Budget Day 2025, despite it being a Saturday. NSE and BSE shared two separate notifications. Markets will be open from 9 am to 3:30 pm for equity and till 5 pm for commodities.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has so far held several meetings with various stakeholders including MSMEs, farmers’ associations and economists.