Budget 2024: For a few hours of Budget presentation, preparations start 6 months in advance; know why

Interim Budget 2024: When Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman delivers the Interim Budget 2024 on February 1, 2024, what will people look for? A salaried class person for tax rebates; an entrepreneur for schemes providing aid to entrepreneurs; a seasoned businessman for policies that can safeguard their business or increase their profits.

From a blue-collar worker to a top chief executive; from a roadside seller to the top business honcho; from a low-salaried person to the highest-earning CEO, a budget has something for everyone.

Every Indian expects that the budget will do something that will improve their standard of living to some extent.

So, when the finance minister delivers their speech every year, a majority of Indians keep tabs on important announcements.

The Budget speech that has these announcements may last from a few minutes to a few hours.

But a speech that lasts no more than a few hours takes approximately six months to prepare.

In this write-up, learn about the process of how the Budget is prepared and why it takes so long to be prepared.

Interim Budget 2024: The process starts 6 months in advance

The process of preparing the budget starts six months in advance.

In the month of September, circulars are issued to all the ministries, departments, states, and union territories, asking them to provide the data on the required funds for the coming year.

On the basis of these data, funds are later given to different ministries.

After this, there is a meeting of the Finance Minister, Finance Secretary, Revenue Secretary, and Expenditure Secretary every day, and discussions are held between different departments regarding the allocation of funds.

During this period, the budget-making team continuously receives input from the Prime Minister, Finance Minister, and NITI Aayog.

Then, the Finance Minister discusses with stakeholders from different sectors like the Revenue Department, Industry Associations, Chambers of Commerce, Farmers Unions, Trade Unions, and Economists.

After these things related to the budget are finalised, a blueprint is prepared. After everything is decided regarding the budget, the budget document is printed.

Interim Budget 2024: How are budget documents protected?

Budget documents are highly confidential; hence, special arrangements are made for their security.

For this reason, every year, after the customary Halwa ceremony, the lock-in period of the officers and employees associated with the budget-making process and its printing starts.

Once the lock-in period starts, no outsider can enter the Finance Ministry.

The mobile network does not work. There are restrictions on internet use. Conversation is possible only through landlines.

Meanwhile, if an employee falls ill, they are not even allowed to go to the hospital for treatment.

A team of doctors equipped with all facilities is present there to provide medical facilities during the lock-in period.

To protect confidential documents from the risk of any kind of hacking, the computers on which the budget documents are stored are delinked from the Internet and NIC servers.

These computers are connected only to printers and printing machines.