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- Published: January 23, 2021 19:48
New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday commenced the final stage of Union Budget 2021-2022 with the customary halwa ceremony in the North Block on Saturday.
As a part of the over-70-year-old ritual, the sweet dish is prepared in a huge kadhai and served to the entire staff at the finance ministry, about 10 days before budget.
Delhi: ‘Halwa Ceremony’ being held at Finance Ministry to mark the beginning of printing of documents relating to #UnionBudget 2021-22.
Union Finance Minister @nsitharaman and Union Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs @ianuragthakur are present. pic.twitter.com/0Tsjh6S6AJ
— NewsMobile (@NewsMobileIndia) January 23, 2021
The customary Halwa ceremony is performed every year before the “lock-in” process of budget preparation begins.
✅Final stage of Union Budget 2021-22 commences with Halwa Ceremony
✅Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman launches “Union Budget Mobile App” to provide easy and quick access to Union Budget information to all stakeholders
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Read More➡️ https://t.co/J0eQucnwlf pic.twitter.com/a0GfX5fBb2— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) January 23, 2021
After the Halwa ceremony, the employees who are part of budget-making process move to the basement of North Block for around 10 days and emerge once the Finance Minister presents the budget. This is done to prevent any leaks before the budget is presented.
Union Budget on Feb 1, paperless for 1st time
The budget will be presented on February 1 and it is the first time it will be delivered in a paperless form.
On the occasion, the Finance Minister also launched the ‘Union Budget Mobile App’ for hassle-free access of budget documents by Members of Parliament (MPs) and the general public.
A Finance Ministry release said the mobile app facilitates complete access to 14 budget documents, including the annual financial statement (commonly known as budget), demand for grants (DG) and finance bill.
The release said that the app has a user-friendly interface with embedded features such as downloading, printing, search, zoom, bidirectional scrolling, table of contents and external links.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched ‘Union Budget Mobile App’ to provide easy and quick access to Union Budget information to all stakeholders. pic.twitter.com/Jg10Q0rFeR
— ANI (@ANI) January 23, 2021
It is bilingual in English and 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. The budget session of parliament begins on January 29.