Final stage of budget-making process starts with Halwa ceremony, Sitharaman launches budget mobile app

The 'Halwa ceremony', marking the final stage of the process of making the Union Budget 2021-22, was held in North Block here on Saturday afternoon in the presence of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. A customary Halwa ceremony is performed every year before the "lock-in" process of budget preparation begins.

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. 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. After the Halwa ceremony, the employees who are a part of the 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.

The budget session of parliament begins on January 29