Union Budget on July 6, Rail Budget on July 3

New Delhi: The Budget Session of Parliament will commence from July 2 and the General Budget for 2009-10 will be presented in the Lok Sabha on July 6.

The schedule for the Budget Session of Parliament was decided at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday.

The Railway Budget will be presented by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on July 3.

The session, which will start from July 2 with the presentation of the Economic Survey, will last till August 7.

The Government hopes to pass the Budget before July 31 to avoid the need for a fresh vote-on-account.

Presentation of the Economic Survey, the Railway Budget and the Union Budget will be followed by a discussion on the demands for grants of select ministries.

This will be the first Budget of the UPA Government in its second term at the Centre.

Last week, the Prime Minister had written to the Finance Ministry to ensure that the Budget "adequately and appropriately" reflect the Government's priorities set out in President Pratibha Patil's address to the joint sitting of Parliament.

In her address, the President had highlighted the UPA Government's ambitious agenda like providing rice or wheat at Rs 3 per kg for BPL families, enlarging the coverage of the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and giving more focus on building infrastructure to bring the economy back on the high growth track.