As Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is set to rise in the Lok Sabha, we bring you 9 little-known facts about the Union Budget.
1) The Halwa Ceremony
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The ‘Halwa Ceremony’ marks the beginning of the printing of the budget. As part of the ceremony, halwa is prepared in a big vessel and served to the Union Finance Minister and the senior officers and support staff involved. This usually takes place a week before the budget presentation.
2) Staff locked in the printing room
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After the ‘Halwa Ceremony’, all the officials and support staff involved in the drafting and printing of the budget are locked away in the printing room of North Block for almost a week. They are almost hermetically sealed (well, pretty much) from the outside world, including from their families. No contact with the outside is allowed until the finance minister finishes the budget speech in the Lok Sabha.
3) Changing with changing times
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Until the year 2000, the Union Budget was presented at 5 pm on the last working day of the month of February, a practice inherited from the British Raj.
4) Two ministers, two budgets
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Interestingly, the 1991-92 final and interim budgets were presented by finance ministers of two different political parties: Yashwant Sinha of the BJP presented the interim budget, while the final budget was presented by Manmohan Singh.
5) The origins of the word ‘budget’
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This is a tradition that has been carried forward from the British chancellors of the exchequer.
6) That crucial month
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The government is required to “commend” the Budget to the Lok Sabha on the last day of February.
7) India’s only female finance minister
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To date, Indira Gandhi has been India’s only woman Union finance minister.
8) The longest surviving finance minister
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He presented 8 budgets, 5 under Nehru and 3 under Indira Gandhi.
9) The first PM to present the budget
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Later, his grandson Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi emulated him. Rajiv Gandhi presented the Union Budget for 1986-87 after the sudden resignation of finance minister V P Singh.
