Budget 2024: Halwa Ceremony Held To Mark Final Stage of Budget Preparation Process

The Halwa ceremony, marking the final stage of the Budget preparation process for Union Budget 2024, was held in North Block in New Delhi on July 16. It was held in the presence of Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary.

A customary Halwa ceremony is performed every year before the “lock-in” process of Budget preparation begins.

The Halwa ceremony was also attended by MoS Finance Pankaj Chaudhary along with secretaries of the finance ministry, CBDT Chairman and CBIC Chairman, besides officials of the finance ministry and North Block Budget Press.

Paperless Budget

Like the previous three full Union Budgets and the Interim Budget 2024, the full Union Budget 2024-25 will also be delivered in paperless form.

All You Need To Know About Halwa Ceremony

Halwa ceremony: It is a kind of a ‘send-off’ for finance ministry officials and staff involved in the preparation of the Union government’s annual financial statement. They enter what is called a ‘lock-in’ period, during which they stay in the basement of North Block, cut off from the world outside with a view to maintaining the secrecy around the final budget document.

They will emerge only after the finance minister completes her Budget speech in the Lok Sabha. It is considered a gesture of appreciation for those who have worked on the Budget. The basement of North Block houses a printing press that was traditionally used to print budget documents for 40 years from 1980 to 2020.

Thereafter, the budget went digital with bare minimum documents printed and the bulk distribution happening via mobile app or on the website. Going digital also meant that the lock-in period has become shorter to just five days from the previous one which lasted up to two weeks.

Printing Press: All Budget-related documents are printed at North Block itself using 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 printing of several hundred copies of the voluminous budget documents was such an elaborate exercise that printing staff had to be quarantined inside the printing press in the basement of North Block for up to two weeks.

Tradition: While the Narendra Modi government has done away with several traditional aspects of the Budget since coming to power in 2014, such as merging the Rail Budget with the main Budget, bringing forward the date of presentation to February 1 instead of the last date of that month, and moving to a digital format — the ‘halwa’ ceremony as a tradition has survived.

Union Budget Mobile App

All the 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.

How To Download Union Budget Mobile App?

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.

Budget 2024 Date

The Union Budget 2024 is set to be presented on July 23, 2024.