With just a handful of days left for interim budget 2024 to take place on February 1st,?the Halwa ceremony was held in the presence of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
The customary Halwa ceremony was held on the evening of 24th January 2024.?It?was held in Finance Ministry's HQ at North Block, in the presence of FM Sitharaman and Union Minister of State for Finance Dr. Bhagwat Kisanrao Karad. The Finance Ministry confirmed that just?like the previous three budgets, Interim Union Budget 2024 will also be delivered in paperless form.?
Also Read;Meet Nirmala Sitharaman's Team Behind Interim?Budget 2024
We all know that it's customary in many parts of India to begin a big or auspicious occasions with sweets, right. Similar is the case with Budget. Ahead of the union budget presentation, the Halwa ceremony takes place, in which the Finance Minister also shows gratitude to everyone who put in a great deal of efforts and hard work to prepare the Budget. The Halwa ceremony also marks the final stage of budget preparation process.
Once the 'halwa' is served to all the staff of the finance ministry, the ceremony initiates the 'lock in' and printing of budget documents.??
Right after Halwa ceremony gets held,?the "lock-in" period, which is a part of the Union Budget process,begins. The lock-in period is observed to maintain the secrecy of upcoming budget, aimed to prevent any information leakage before the Finance Minister/worth/news/ahead-of-budget-2024-heres-the-journey-of-indias-finance-minister-nirmala-sitharaman-625920.html presents the Union budget in the Parliament on February 1. So,?after the Halwa ceremony, not only does the Budget documents printing process begins, but the ceremony is serves as a formal ¡®send-off¡¯ for the Finance ministry officials and staff who were engaged in the budget's preparation.?
These top officials have now entered the ¡®lock-in¡¯ period, in which they will be isolating themselves within the Finance Ministry premises to preserve the confidentiality about the budget until it gets presented by FM Sitharaman on 1st February.
The Interim Union?Budget 2024 will be?presented on 1st?February, 2024 at 11 am by FM Nirmala Sitharaman. You can?watch the live presentation of interim budget 2024 on?Sansad TV and Doordarshan, and also their YouTube channels. The PIB (Press Information Bureau) will also stream the Interim Union Budget 2024 on their online platforms.
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