July 16th 2024.
On Tuesday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman took part in a customary ritual known as the 'halwa' ceremony to mark the final stage of preparation for the Union Budget 2024-25. This much-awaited budget is set to be presented on July 23 in the Lok Sabha.
The 'halwa' ceremony is an age-old tradition where a special dessert called 'halwa' is prepared and served to the officials and staff members of the finance ministry who have been tirelessly working on the budget. The ceremony takes place in the basement of the North Block, the ministry's location in the national capital, and is attended by the finance minister and other high-ranking officials.
According to a post on social media, the finance ministry stated, "The final stage of the Budget preparation process for Union Budget 2024-25 commenced with the customary Halwa ceremony in the presence of Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. @nsitharaman, in New Delhi, today." As part of the ceremony, the finance minister also took a tour of the Budget Press to review the preparations and extended her best wishes to the officials involved.
Similar to the previous three full Union Budgets and one Interim, the upcoming budget will also be presented in a paperless format. All the budget documents, including the Annual Financial Statement, Demand for Grants, and Finance Bill, will be available on the "Union Budget Mobile App" for easy access.
Apart from Sitharaman, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary and other senior officials, such as Finance Secretary T V Somanathan, Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth, and Financial Services Secretary Vivek Joshi, were also present at the ceremony.
The 'halwa' ceremony is a symbolic 'send-off' for the finance ministry officials and staff who have been working tirelessly on the Union government's annual financial statement. They enter what is known as a 'lock-in' period, where they are cut off from the outside world to maintain the secrecy of the final budget document. They will emerge from this period only after the finance minister finishes her Budget speech in the Lok Sabha. The ceremony is seen as a gesture of appreciation for the hard work put in by the officials.
The basement of North Block houses a printing press that was traditionally used to print budget documents for 40 years, from 1980 to 2020. However, with the budget going digital, the printing of documents has significantly reduced, and the lock-in period has also been reduced to just five days.
All the budget-related documents are printed at North Block using a dedicated government press. Previously, the documents were printed at Rashtrapati Bhavan, but this was shifted to a press on Minto Road in 1950 after documents were leaked. In 1980, the printing was moved to North Block. The printing process was so extensive that the printing staff had to be quarantined inside the press for up to two weeks.
While the current government has made significant changes to the budget presentation, such as merging the Rail Budget with the main Budget and presenting it on February 1 instead of the last day of that month, the tradition of the 'halwa' ceremony has remained. It is a reminder of the rich history and culture surrounding the budget process.
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