Halwa Ceremony: Printing process for General Budget 2019-20 commences

Marking the commencement of Budget printing process for the General Budget 2019-20, Halwa ceremony was held in North Block today afternoon in the presence of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, said a FinMin statement. As the Union Budget 2019-20 will be presented on 5th July, 2019, there is a “lock-in” of the officials involved in making the Budget to maintain the secrecy. 

The Budget press, situated in North Block, houses all the officials in the period leading up to the presentation of the Union Budget. These officers and staff gain touch with their near and dear ones only after the Budget is presented by the Finance Minister in Parliament.

At the Halwa ceremony, the Finance Minister was accompanied by MoS for Finance Anurag Thakur, Finance Secretary SC Garg, Revenue Secretary AB Pandey, besides Rajiv Kumar Secretary, DFS, and Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary, DIPAM, among others.

PC Mody, Chairman, CBDT; PK Das, Chairman, CBIC, members of CBDT & CBIC and Arvind Srivastava, Joint Secretary (Budget), besides other officers and staff of the Ministry of Finance involved in the Budget preparation and printing process were also present on the occasion, according to the FinMin statement.