The final stage of the Budget preparation process for 2023 kicked off with the traditional halwa ceremony on January 26 at the North Block, which houses the Finance ministry. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Budget on February 1. The halwa ceremony resumed this year after a Covid-induced break. What is the Budget halwa ceremony? Held some days before the Budget is to be presented, the halwa ceremony involves the Finance Minister stirring a large pan of the halwa, and the sweet then being distributed to ministry officials and staff members. The ceremony marks the beginning of the budget 'lock-in' period. After the halwa is served, officials and support staff directly associated with the Budget process – its preparation and printing - stay in the North Block, cut off from everyone, including their families, till the Budget is presented. This is done to maintain the secrecy of the Union Budget. The lock-in period ends only after the Finance Minister has given the Budget speech in Lok Sabha. The halwa is a gesture of appreciation for all those who work to bring out the Budget. The lock-in period has now become shorter, as the government moved to paperless budgets from 2021, thus cutting down the time needed to print Budget copies. According to the Press Trust of India, Budget-related documents are printed at North Block on a dedicated government press. “Earlier, the documents were printed at Rashtrapati Bhavan, but this was shifted to a press on Minto Road in the national capital in 1950 after documents were leaked, and in 1980 to North Block,” the PTI report said. This year, according to a Press Information Bureau (PIB) release, along with Sitharaman, the halwa ceremony was attended by TV Somanathan, Finance Secretary & Secretary Expenditure; Ajay Seth, Secretary, Economic Affairs; Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretary, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM); Sanjay Malhotra, Secretary, Revenue; Anantha V Nageswaran, Chief Economic Advisor; Shri Nitin Gupta, Chairman, Central Board for Direct taxes (CBDT); Vivek Johri, Chairman, Central Board for Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC); and Ashish Vachhani, Additional Secretary (Budget). Paperless Budget According to the PIB release, Union Budget 2023-24 will also be delivered in paperless form. “All the 14 Union Budget documents, including the Annual Financial Statement (commonly known as Budget), Demand for Grants (DG), Finance Bill etc. as prescribed by the Constitution, will available on the “Union Budget Mobile App” for hassle-free access of Budget documents by Members of Parliament (MPs) and the general public using the simplest form of digital convenience. It is bilingual (English & Hindi) and will be available on both Android and iOS platforms. The App can also be downloaded from the Union Budget Web Portal (www.indiabudget.gov.in). The Budget documents will be available on the Mobile App after the completion of the Budget Speech by the Finance Minister in Parliament on 1st February, 2023,” the release said. Briefcase and bahi khata Till 2018, Finance Ministers carried the Budget papers to Parliament in a briefcase, a British-era tradition. However, in 2019, Sitharaman brought the documents in a red cloth tied with a string, with the national emblem emblazoned on it. Red clothes are usually used to cover religious texts. Then Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian had called it a sign of “departure from slavery of Western slavery”. “It is in Indian tradition. It symbolises our departure from slavery of Western thought. It is not a budget but a ‘bahi khata’ (ledger),” Subramanian had said. After the Budget went paperless, Sitharaman read it off a tablet. According to PTI, last year, she carried the tablet wrapped in a red cloth.
