Arun Jaitley to Present Budget on July 10: Sources

New Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present the budget for the 2014-15 financial year on July 10, government sources said, three days after Parliament begins its budget session.

The new government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will present the railway budget on July 8 and the country's Economic Survey on July 9.

The budget session of Parliament is scheduled to conclude on August 14, but it could be extended further, the sources said.

Just a few days ago, the PM warned that "bitter medicine" must be administered to revitalize a moribund economy.

His comments were made to BJP workers, as he asked them to back the steps he planned to restore the health of Asia's third-largest economy, which has suffered its longest slowdown since the country embarked on free market reforms in 1991.

India's previous government presented an interim budget for 2014-15 to parliament on February 17, ahead of national elections to cover expenditure until a new administration was installed. The regular budget must be passed in Parliament by July 31, when the interim budget expires.

Expectations of a reform-oriented budget have gone up after the new government raised rail fares on Friday. Mr Jaitley termed the rail fare hike as a "difficult but a correct decision". Rail stocks gained on hopes that more funds will be set aside to build infrastructure.

Here are some other economic decisions announced today:

• The government will hike import duty on sugar to 40 per cent from the current 15 per cent, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said. The hike in duty will make imports costlier and boost domestic producers. Sugar stocks jumped sharply after the announcement.

• The government will provide additional interest-free loan of Rs. 4,400 crore to cash-starved sugar mills to make payments to cane farmers, the food ministers added.