New Delhi, Nov 16 (IANS): Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal on Wednesday said that the Budget date has been finalised as February 1, though a formal confirmation is awaited from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

"It is almost decided that February 1 will be the date for presentation of the Budget. The date will be formally decided in the CCEA meeting," Meghwal told IANS in an interview.

The minister said that it was also necessary to present the Budget early as the implementation date of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has been fixed at April 1, 2017.

The other two major changes regarding the upcoming Union Budget are, converging of the Rail Budget with the General Budget and doing away with the Plan and Non-Plan Expenditure.

Instead the Budget will have Revenue and Expenditure classification.

"Revenue Department has also started the pre-Budget consultations with the various stakeholders and Finance Minister's (Arun Jaitley) consultations with major stakeholders are also planned to be held in advance," Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das had said earlier.