India budget to be presented after state polls

NEW DELHI: India's federal budget for 2012/13 ending March will be presented after elections scheduled in five states, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Monday.

State elections are scheduled between the end of January and early March.

"We have not yet decided the time, but naturally it (the budget) will be after the elections," Mukherjee told reporters.

The annual budget is usually presented on the last working day of February.

A senior government official, with direct knowledge of the matter, said the budget could be presented in mid-March.

"There are two proposals...the budget could be presented either on March 14 or 15," the official, who declined to be named, told Reuters on Monday.