Budget Day

In Ireland, Budget Day is the annual statement to the Dáil by the Minister for Finance, made in the first week of December. It sets out the budgetary targets for the following year and consists of (i) a Financial Statement to the Dáil, (ii) Budgetary Measures (a list of budgetary changes detailing the cost/yield of same), (iii) Budget Statistics and Tables and (iv) various financial resolutions. The day itself is very similar to Budget Day in the United Kingdom. In the early afternoon, the Minister for Finance will normally hold a photocall in the car park of Leinster House, with the traditional budget briefcase (in recent years, a floppy disk or CD-ROM purportedly containing the contents of the Budget speech has often been used instead). At 15:45, the Minister for Finance presents the budget speech in Dáil Éireann. The speech, which lasts approximately one hour, is normally carried live on Raidió Teilifís Éireann radio and television. The speech contains the main taxation and other fiscal measures to be employed over the next calendar year. The Opposition Front Bench spokesperson on Finance normally replies to the Budget speech first, followed by the spokespersons on finance of other opposition parties. A vote on supply normally takes place before midnight on the night of the budget, with changes to excise duties on alcohol, tobacco, and petrol taking place from midnight. Most other measures are spelt out in greater detail in the Finance Bill which is introduced in the Oireachtas following the budget, eventually becoming the Finance Act. == Netherlands ==

Onno Ruding carrying the budget briefcase, Prinsjedag 1983 In the Netherlands, the presentation of the budget is made on the same day as when the monarch gives the speech from the throne; this is held on the third Tuesday of September, which is called Prinsjesdag (Little Princes' Day). After the monarch gives the speech from the throne, announcing the government's agenda for the coming year, the National Budget and the Budget Memorandum are presented later that day to the House of Representatives and are brought in a ceremonial briefcase by the minister of finance. This briefcase tradition was introduced in 1947 by Piet Lieftinck in imitation of the British tradition. == Sweden ==

Budgetpromenaden, or the budget walk, is a traditional biannual procession when the Swedish finance minister walk with a copy of the budget bill from the Ministry of Finance to the Riksdag (the parliament), a distance of 400 metres (440 yd). == Hong Kong ==

In Hong Kong the Financial Secretary introduces the appropriations bill for first reading a few weeks before the beginning of a fiscal year on 1 April, with a speech to move the motion for first reading of the bill. In 2002 the tradition for the Secretary for the Treasury to deliver a spending announcement was abolished. The budget day typically falls on a Wednesday in early March, but since 2000 it has been moved to a Wednesday in late February. A resolution for temporary appropriations is usually moved, since the third reading of the appropriations bill usually takes place after 1 April. == India ==

The Union Budget of India, referred to as the Annual Financial Statement in Article 112 of the Constitution of India, is the annual budget of the Republic of India, presented each year on the very first day of February by the Finance Minister of India in Parliament. The budget, which is presented by means of the Finance Bill and the Appropriation bill has to be passed by the House before it can come into effect on 1 April, the start of India's financial year. Pre-liberalisation The first Union budget of independent India was presented by R. K. Shanmukham Chetty on 26 November 1947. The Union budgets for the fiscal years 1959–61 to 1963–64, inclusive of the interim budget for 1962–63, were presented by Morarji Desai. Vyas presented budgets that included five annual budgets, an interim budget during his first stint and one interim budget and three final budgets in his second tenure when he was both the Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of India. encouraged foreign investments and reduced peak import duty from 300 plus per cent to 50 per cent. Date of budget announcement Until the year 2016, the Union Budget was presented in the Lok Sabha on the last working day of February. It was Mr. Arun Jaitley, the Minister of Finance in the BJP led NDA Government under the Prime Ministership of Mr. Narendra Modi, who changed the date of the Annual Budget of 2017 to the first working day of February. Additionally, the Railway Budget was also merged with the General Budget after 92 years in 2017. == United States ==

The United States does not have a Budget Day. Instead the legislation that establishes the federal government's budget originates in the Congress, although the executive branch traditionally makes a proposal in advance. == Footnotes ==