5 months ago
2
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman connected Tuesday (January 27, 2026) participated successful a accepted 'halwa' ceremony, marking the last signifier for the mentation of the Union Budget 2026-27, to beryllium unveiled connected February 1 successful the Lok Sabha.
The ceremonial took spot astatine the North Block connected Raisina Hill, the aged code of the Finance Ministry, arsenic the caller premises astatine the Kartyava Bhawan-I bash not person a printing press.
The Finance Minister and astir of her squad were shifted from the iconic and majestic North Block to the modern cardinal secretariat bureau housed successful Kartavya Bhawan successful September 2025.
The ceremonial is simply a customary ritual successful which accepted dessert ‘halwa’ is prepared and served to officials and unit members of the Finance Ministry who are progressive successful the mentation of the Budget.
The ‘Halwa ceremony’ precedes the 'lock-in' of the officials progressive successful mentation of the Union Budget, an authoritative connection said.
Maintaining the tradition, it was organised successful the basement of North Block, which was attended by the Finance Minister and different high-ranking officials.
The Union Budget volition beryllium presented connected February 1, 2026.
As portion of the ceremony, the Union Finance Minister besides took a circuit of the Budget Press and reviewed the preparations, too extending her champion wishes to the full Budget team.
At the Halwa Ceremony, the Finance Minister was accompanied by Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary and the Secretaries of each the Departments nether the Ministry of Finance and different elder officers progressive successful the Budget preparation.
Ms. Sitharaman is going to contiguous Budget 2026-27, her ninth consecutive fund successful a row, successful the backdrop of GDP maturation expected to beryllium astatine 7.6% this fiscal twelvemonth amid planetary geopolitical headwinds.
Like the erstwhile 5 afloat Union Budgets and 1 interim, the afloat Union Budget 2026-27 volition besides beryllium delivered successful a paperless form.
All Union Budget documents, including the Annual Financial Statement (commonly known arsenic the Budget), Demand for Grants (DG), Finance Bill, etc., volition besides beryllium disposable connected the 'Union Budget Mobile App' for hassle-free entree to Budget documents by Members of Parliament (MPs) and the wide nationalist successful a digitally accessible mode, it said.
The app is bilingual (English and Hindi) and volition beryllium disposable connected some Android and iOS platforms, it said, adding that the Budget documents volition beryllium disposable connected the Mobile App and the website aft the completion of the Budget Speech by the Finance Minister successful Parliament connected February 1, 2026.
Halwa ceremony
It is simply a benignant of ‘send-off’ for Finance Ministry officials and unit progressive successful the mentation of the Union government’s yearly fiscal statement. They participate what is called a ‘lock-in’ period, during which they enactment successful the basement of North Block, chopped disconnected from the satellite outside, with a presumption to maintaining the secrecy astir the last Budget document.
They volition look lone aft the Finance Minister completes her Budget code successful the Lok Sabha. It is considered a motion of appreciation for those who person worked connected the Budget. The basement of North Block houses a printing property that was traditionally utilized to people fund documents for 40 years, from 1980 to 2020.
Thereafter, the fund went integer with bare minimum documents printed and the bulk organisation happening via mobile app oregon connected the website. Going integer besides meant that the lock-in play has go shorter, to conscionable 5 days from the erstwhile one, which lasted up to 2 weeks.
Printing Press
All Budget-related documents are printed astatine the North Block itself utilizing a dedicated authorities press. Earlier, the documents were printed astatine Rashtrapati Bhavan, but this was shifted to a property connected Minto Road successful the nationalist superior successful 1950 aft documents were leaked, and successful 1980 to North Block.
The printing of respective 100 copies of the voluminous fund documents was specified an elaborate workout that printing unit had to beryllium quarantined wrong the printing property successful the basement of North Block for up to 2 weeks.
Tradition
While the Narendra Modi authorities has done distant with respective accepted aspects of the Budget since coming to powerfulness successful 2014, specified arsenic merging the Rail Budget with the main Budget from 2017, bringing guardant the day of presumption to February 1 alternatively of the past day of that month, and moving to a integer format successful 2021 — the ‘halwa’ ceremonial arsenic a contented has survived.
