Budget 2024 Halwa Ceremony; Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Business News | Halwa ceremony held in the presence of Finance Minister: Preparations for Union Budget 2024-25 completed, Minister Sitharaman made the officials sweet

Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman serving halwa to officials.

The Union Budget 2024-25 will be presented on July 23. Its preparations have been completed. The traditional Halwa ceremony was celebrated this evening (July 16) with the commencement of printing of budget related documents. This event took place at the headquarters of the Union Finance Ministry located in North Block, Delhi.

The video of the event has been shared on social media platform X. In this, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is seen opening a big iron pan, which contained halwa. The Finance Minister served halwa to the officials of the ministry. On this occasion, Union Minister of State for Finance Dr. Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad, Pankaj Chaudhary and senior officials of the Finance Ministry were present.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the budget for the seventh consecutive time. She will become the first Finance Minister of the country to do so. Before this, Morarji Desai had presented 6 consecutive budgets. This budget will be the first full budget of the new government. The government had presented the interim budget in February. The budget session will run from 22 July to 12 August.

Halwa ceremony not celebrated for two years due to Covid-19
Halwa is made in the Finance Ministry before the budget is finalized. This ritual has been going on for a long time. Starting auspicious work with sweets is the main reason for celebrating Halwa Ceremony. This ritual was not performed in the years 2021 and 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, core employees were given sweets following the Covid protocol.

Employees associated with the budget will remain closed till the budget is presented.
After the Halwa ceremony, the process of printing the budget starts. Till its introduction, all the officers and support staff involved in printing are locked in the ministry. During this period, officers are not allowed to use their phones. They cannot even meet their families until the budget is presented. Its purpose is to keep the budget confidential. The tradition of keeping employees under house arrest started after the budget leak in 1950.

This budget may focus on tax relief and farmers

Interim budget was presented on 1 February 2024
Lok Sabha elections were to be held in April and May this year, hence the government had presented the interim budget on 1 February. Nirmala had focused her budget on the poor, women, youth and Annadata i.e. farmers.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman gave a 58-minute budget speech on February 1, 2024.

What is full and interim budget? What is the difference between them?
The Union Budget is the annual financial account of the country. In other words, the budget is an estimated statement of the government’s earnings and expenditure for a particular year.

Through the budget, the government tries to decide to what extent it can spend in comparison to its earnings in the upcoming financial year. The government has to present the budget at the beginning of every financial year. The financial year period in India is from 1 April to 31 March.

Whereas the interim budget provides funds to the government to run the country until the general elections are decided and the full budget is announced after the formation of the new government. The term interim budget is not official. Officially it is called Vote on Account.

Nirmala will create a new record, Morarji Desai had presented it six consecutive times
Nirmala will become the first Finance Minister of the country to do so for the seventh consecutive time when she presents the budget on July 23. Earlier, Morarji Desai had presented six consecutive budgets. However, Morarji presented the budget maximum 10 times. After him, P. Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee presented the budget 9 times, Yashwant Rao Chavan, CD Deshmukh and Yashwant Sinha presented the budget 7 times. Manmohan Singh and T. Krishnamachari have presented the budget 6 times.

Now understand the entire process of budget

1. First of all, the Finance Ministry issues a circular asking all the ministries, states, union territories, autonomous bodies to make estimates for the new year. Apart from giving projections for the new year, they also have to give details of last year’s expenses and income.

2. After receiving the estimate, top officials of the central government examine it. There is an in-depth discussion on this among the officials of the concerned ministries and expenditure department. The data is then sent to the Finance Ministry with recommendations.

3. The Finance Ministry, after considering all the recommendations, allocates revenue to the departments for their expenditure. The Department of Revenue and Economic Affairs contacts representatives of farmers and small businessmen and foreign institutional investors to gain an in-depth understanding of the situation.

4. In the pre-budget meeting, the Finance Minister meets the concerned parties to know their proposals and demands. These include representatives of states, bankers, agronomists, economists and representatives of employee organizations. After the pre-budget meeting is over, the Finance Minister takes the final decision on all the demands. The Finance Minister also talks to the Prime Minister before the budget is finalized.

5.Halwa ceremony takes place a few days before the presentation of the budget. Halwa prepared in a big pan is distributed among the staff of the Finance Ministry. With this the printing process of the budget begins. The officers and support staff involved in the process remain in the ministry until the budget is presented. The budget for this financial year was not printed and soft copies were given to the Members of Parliament.

6.The Finance Minister presents the General Budget in the Lok Sabha. Till 2016, it was presented on the last day of February. From 2017, it started being presented every year on 1 February. This year, for the first time, all budget documents were made available on Union Budget mobile.

Interesting facts related to the budget…