FM Nirmala Sitharaman participated in the Halwa ceremony, ahead of the union budget 2024.
Jul 17, 2024
By: Ira Alok Puranik
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Yesterday, FM Nirmala Sitharaman participated in the Halwa ceremony in the North block. The ceremony, which takes place 6-7 days before the budget, acknowledges the efforts of all officials involved in preparing the budget.
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The ceremony marks the start of budget document printing. This is organized in North Block's basement and attended by the finance minister and other ministry officials. However, with everything going digital, only a few key budget documents are now printed.
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The Halwa ceremony takes place in the basement of North Block, which houses the finance ministry. The ceremony marks the start of the budget document printing.
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The halwa ceremony also marks the start of the lock-in period till the budget presentation. Until 23rd July, all officials directly involved in the making and printing the budget document will stay inside the ministry, with no contact from the outside world.
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The officials directly involved in budget printing are prohibited from contacting their relatives or family members until the budget is tabled. This is done to maintain complete secrecy and ensure that no information related to budget is leaked out.
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In 1950, the budget documents were leaked from the Rashtrapati Bhawan Press, where they were originally printed. Accused of serving the interests of powerful people, the erstwhile finance minister has to resign. Since then, officials are locked in to maintain secrecy.
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Since 1980, budget printing has been taking place in the North block, which continued till 2020. After the government went paperless, only a few, key budget documents are printed for record purposes.
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All budget documents will be available on the “Union Budget Mobile App” in both English and Hindi, after the Finance Minister's budget speech on 23rd July. They will also be available online on indiabudget.gov.in
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On July 23rd, Nirmala Sitharaman will deliver her seventh consecutive budget speech. Former Prime Minister Morarji Desai c holds the record for presenting most budgets (10). He is followed by P Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee.
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