The Union
Budget 2022 will be presented by the Union Finance & Corporate Affairs
Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1, 2022.  In the budget 2020-21,
the primary focus of the government was on health and rural infrastructure.
This year, the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has raised concerns regarding the
economic recovery. This will be the fourth time that Sitharaman will present
the Budget in Parliament.

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Here are
certain details about this year’s budget that you should know:

Budget
Session

The budget
session will begin on January 31 with the address of President Ram Nath Kovind
to the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament. The two houses of Parliament
will meet at separate times of the day for five hours each – Rajya Sabha in the
first half and Lok Sabha in the second half – to maintain Covid distancing
norms during the budget session.

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Budget
2022 – Date and Time

Union
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget 2022 on
February 1 at 11 am. The budget speech generally lasts for around two hours

The Lok Sabha
will meet on February 1 for the presentation of the budget. Later, it will meet
from 4 pm to 9 pm from February 2 to February 11, when the session will go into
a recess.

The second
phase of the session will begin on March 14 and will last till April 8, 2021.
The timings of meetings for this part of the session are not known.

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Budget
2022 – When and where to watch

The Union
Budget 2022 speech by Sitharaman will be aired on Sansad TV, the official
Parliament channel, and national broadcaster Doordarshan. The budget
speech can also be watched on the YouTube channel of Sansad TV.

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What to
expect

Pandemic-hit
India expects the government to put more focus on this year’s budget. The
healthcare and insurance sectors are expecting higher allocations and policies.
For the individual taxpayers, budget 2022 is expected to provide a reduction in
tax rates and surcharges.

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The salaried class is expecting an increase in the
standard deduction and a host of measures from the finance minister. The
budget is expected to provide support to the insurance sector, rural economy,
and manufacturing through increased spending and PLI schemes like in the
previous year.