Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is all set to present the Union Budget for 2017 in Parliament on Wednesday.

Government sources told ANI that "the Budget would go ahead despite the death of lawmaker and former Union Minister E Ahamed, who collapsed on Tuesday in Parliament while President Pranab Mukherjee was delivering his speech, and died of a cardiac arrest in the wee hours on Wednesday."

"The obituary to Ahamed will be made either before or after the Budget", ANI said. Opposition parties were taken into confidence regarding the decision.

Previously, there was speculation that the Budget might be postponed, as per the customs to adjourn the House following the death of a sitting member. Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan will take a formal call on holding the Budget at 10 am on Wednesday.

The Railway Budget will also be presented along with the Union Budget this year.

"On Tuesday, the government also presented the Economic Survey 2016-17 in Parliament, which predicted that the GDP growth rate to decline to 6.5 percent for the current financial year, because of demonetization. However, the growth rate will rebind to 6.75-7.5 percent in the coming fiscal", the report said.

The report also proposed the agricultural growth rate to rising and industrial growth rate to fall to 5.2 per cent from 7.4 per cent during the current financial year.

The Economic Survey also suggested a Universal Basic Income (UBI) for all citizens, to follow several social security schemes. The report said that "UBI is an idea ‘whose time as come’. However, there is no immediate effort on the part of the government to implement this measure."

Cabinet Decides No Separate Railway Budget

BY M. DIVYA SRI