TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ Piyush Goyal is likely to present the interim Budget on February 1 as he was on Wednesday given the additional charge of finance ministry as Arun Jaitley is in the US for medical treatment, sources said. Jaitley has undergone surgery at a hospital in New York on Tuesday and has been advised at least two weeks rest by the doctors, sources said.
Jaitley, who had travelled to the US on January 13, has undergone tests for soft tissue cancer this week. Ahead of the interim budget scheduled to be presented on February 1, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal has been given additional charge of finance and corporate affairs ministries.
According to a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique, President Ram Nath Kovind, as advised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, directed that during the period of Jaitley’s indisposition, the portfolios of the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Corporate Affairs, held by him, be temporarily assigned to Goyal, in addition to his existing portfolios.
The Budget comes ahead of the general elections and the government is expected to make some key announcements, including relief package for farmers, poor and sops for the middle-class. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government will be presenting its last Budget on February 1.
