Assertion (A): As part of the major reforms to Union Budget, the date of budget was advanced to 1 February for the first time from the Budget for Financial year 2020.
Reason (R): The advancement of Budget date has been done to enable early completion of the Budget cycle.
Choose the correct answer from the codes below:

Assertion (A):
The statement says that the Union Budget date was advanced to 1 February for the first time for the Budget of the Financial Year 2020.
This is incorrect — the Union Budget date was advanced to 1 February for the first time during the Budget for the Financial Year 2017–18, not 2020.
Hence, Assertion (A) is wrong.

Reason (R):
The advancement of the Budget date to 1 February was done to enable early completion of the Budget cycle — this is correct.
It allows ministries and departments to start implementing allocations and schemes from 1 April, the beginning of the financial year.

Therefore, Assertion (A) is wrong but Reason (R) is correct.

Until 2016, the Union Budget was presented on the last working day of February.

In 2017, the government under Finance Minister Arun Jaitley decided to present it on 1 February to improve the fiscal management process.

To complete the Budget process before the start of the financial year.

To enable early fund release and timely implementation of schemes.

To avoid delays in approvals that affected developmental work in the first quarter.

Aligns fiscal planning with the financial year.

Improves efficiency in fund utilization and project execution.

Merges the Railway Budget with the Union Budget to ensure better coordination.

Timely implementation of tax measures and government programs.

Faster resource allocation to ministries.

Enhanced fiscal discipline and accountability.

Year of change: 2017

Finance Minister: Arun Jaitley

Other major reform: Merger of the Railway Budget with the General Budget.

Objective: Early passage of the Budget → better implementation → improved public service delivery.