Legal and Policies
Union Budget set for Sunday, February 1 as calendar cleared
NEW DELHI: India’s biggest financial day may arrive with a weekend twist. The Union Budget 2026–27 is likely to be presented on 1 February, which falls on a Sunday, according to media reports, after the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs approved the Parliament calendar. If confirmed, it would mark the first time the budget is delivered on a Sunday, giving tradition a gentle nudge aside.
The budget Session of Parliament will begin on January 28 with the President’s address to a joint sitting of both Houses. The Economic Survey, which sets the mood music for budget day, is scheduled to be tabled on January 29.
All eyes will again be on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who is poised to present her eighth consecutive Union Budget. That feat would make her the first finance minister in India’s history to deliver eight budgets in a row. The upcoming exercise will also be the 80th Union Budget since Independence.
Since 2017, the budget has been presented on February 1 at 11 am, a shift designed to speed up the rollout of policies from the start of the new financial year. While a Sunday budget would be a first, weekend presentations are not entirely new. Sitharaman presented the 2025 budget on a Saturday, and former finance minister Arun Jaitley delivered budgets on Saturdays in 2015 and 2016.
With eight budgets, Sitharaman moves closer to the record held by Morarji Desai, who presented 10 budgets across two stints. Among more recent finance ministers, P Chidambaram presented nine budgets, while Pranab Mukherjee delivered eight.
Appointed India’s first full-time woman finance minister in 2019, Sitharaman has retained the portfolio through three consecutive terms of the Narendra Modi government. If the Sunday schedule holds, budget day this year will come with fewer office commutes, but no shortage of attention.
Legal and Policies
‘The India deal is on…’: India tariffs cut to 10% from 18% after Trump’s SC defeat
In response, Trump rolls out blanket 10 per cent tariff, “effective almost immediately”
WASHINGTON: The White House said on Friday that US trading partners, including India, will face a flat 10 per cent tariff after the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s use of emergency powers to impose sweeping import duties. Countries that reached tariff agreements with Washington, both before and after Trump’s original orders, will now be subject to the same 10 per cent levy, even if higher rates had previously been agreed.
The ruling invalidated Trump’s reliance on a 1977 law to levy sudden, country-specific tariffs, dealing a sharp blow to one of his signature economic policies. Within hours, the administration responded by certifying a new, across-the-board 10 per cent duty on imports into the United States.
In response, Trump announced an additional blanket 10 per cent tariff on all imports into the United States, signing a new order and saying on social media that it was “effective almost immediately”, after a year in which his administration had imposed varying duties to reward allies and punish rivals.
According to a White House factsheet, the new levy will take effect on 24 February and remain in force for 150 days. Exemptions will continue for sectors under separate investigations, including pharmaceuticals, and for goods entering the US under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
A White House official told AFP that the administration would seek ways to “implement more appropriate or pre-negotiated tariff rates” at a later stage, signalling that country-specific arrangements could return through alternative legal routes.
The move directly affects India, which earlier this month announced a framework for an interim trade agreement with the United States. That arrangement followed Trump’s decision to lift 25 per cent punitive tariffs linked to India’s purchases of Russian oil and cut reciprocal duties from 25 per cent to 18 per cent. Under the new regime, Indian exports to the US will instead face the flat 10 per cent rate.
Trump insisted the Supreme Court verdict would not disrupt the India-US trade deal. “Nothing changes,” he said, adding that India would continue to pay tariffs while the United States would not.
“They’ll be paying tariffs, and we will not be paying tariffs. So the deal with India is they pay tariffs… It’s a fair deal now,” Trump said, describing the shift as a “flip” from past arrangements. “The India deal is on… all the deals are on—we’re just going to do it in a different way.”
Earlier on Friday, the Supreme Court ruled six to three that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorise a president to impose tariffs. Chief justice John Roberts said the law contained “no reference to tariffs or duties” and did not grant such “extraordinary power”.
Trump reacted angrily, accusing the court, without evidence, of foreign influence and claiming the ruling left him “more powerful”. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent later said the administration’s alternative approach would leave tariff revenues “virtually unchanged” in 2026.
The decision does not affect sector-specific duties on steel, aluminium and other goods, nor ongoing investigations that could lead to further levies. Still, it marks Trump’s most significant Supreme Court defeat since returning to the White House.
Markets reacted calmly, with Wall Street shares edging higher. Business groups welcomed the ruling, while uncertainty remains over whether companies will receive refunds for tariffs already paid. Analysts estimate potential refunds could reach $175 billion, though legal clarity is lacking.
