NEW DELHI, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Indian government Wednesday approved merger of its railway budget with the country's annual general budget, thereby ending a 92-year-old tradition.
The decision was announced by India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitely.
"Rail budget and general budget will be amalgamated from now, there will only be one budget, which will be the general budget and all proposals with regard to the railways will be part of general budget," Jaitley said during a media briefing. "However, the functional autonomy of railways will be maintained."
The practice of presenting the budget separately was started in 1924.
With the government approval, from next financial year (2017-18), a unified budget will be presented in the Indian Parliament.
Jaitley said the government was in favor of advancing the budget process, including the date of its presentation and dates for next year's budget session of Parliament would be fixed after taking into consideration election dates in the states.
Previously, the Indian government used to present the annual general budget at the end of February every year. However, with the advancing of the dates, there is possibility that next year's budget would be presented on Feb.1.
