Narendra Modi-led NDA government is due to present its last budget on February 1, before the 2019 general elections. Finance minister Arun Jaitley, who is currently in US for medical treatment, is likely to present the budget. This will be an interim budget of the NDA government.

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• An interim budget is presented when the incumbent government is going through an election in the near future. In such a case, propriety demands that the task of framing the full budget be left to the incoming government

• Through the interim budget, parliament passes a vote-on-account that allows the government to meet the expenses of the administration until the new parliament considers and passes the budget for the whole year.

• The constitution provides for a vote on account, and that says that government can approach parliament to sanction expenditures for a part of the year.
• The previous 12 interim budgets, since independence, have refrained from altering the financial bill.
• Interim budget is considered to be crucial for the incumbent government as it is their last chance to attract the voters and make a fervent appeal to the electorate.