Budget 2020: Printing of documents starts with 'Halwa Ceremony'

Budget 2020: The printing of budget documents started on Monday morning with the customary 'Halwa Ceremony' at the Ministry of Finance, North Block on Monday. The ceremony is held every year before the budget documents start printing. The ceremony was attended by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur and few other senior FinMin officials.

The Finance Ministry also shared a few images of the ceremony where all the officials can be seen having the halwa. "The Union Finance Minister, Smt. @nsitharaman presided over #HalwaCeremony today at North Block to mark the beginning of printing of #Budget2020 documents. MoS Shri @ianuragthakur was also present besides senior @FinMinIndia officials," it tweeted.

The Union Finance Minister, Smt. @nsitharaman presided over #HalwaCeremony today at North Block to mark the beginning of printing of #Budget2020 documents. MoS Shri @ianuragthakur was also present besides senior @FinMinIndia officials. pic.twitter.com/CgzYwYnLKx

— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) January 20, 2020

For those unaware, the halwa ceremony is held every year before the budget. Halwa is prepared in a large vessel and is served to the officers and support staff of the finance ministry involved directly in Budget preparation.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to present her second budget on February 1 in the parliament. The Budget session will start a day before with President Ram Nath Kovind's speech and the economic survey will be presented by Chief Economic Adviser KV Subramanian on the same day as well.

Notably, this year's budget will be presented on a Saturday and stock exchanges as well Parliament will work unlike any other weekend when they remain closed.