Budget Officers Go Underground after Halwa Ceremony

More than 100 officials involved in making the Union Budget 2015-16 will be locked in from tomorrow in the Budget Press in North Block and will remain there till the Finance Minister’s Budget Speech is over in Lok Sabha on 28th February, 2015. ‘Halwa Ceremony’ marking the commencement of printing process of Budget documents of Union Budget 2015-16 was held here today in the presence of the Union Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley. To maintain the secrecy of the Budget preparation process, there is a “lock-in” of the officials involved in making the Budget. Budget Press in North Block houses all these officials in the period leading up to the presentation of Union Budget in Parliament by the Finance Minister. These officers will gain touch with their near and dear ones only after the Union Budget is presented by the Finance Minister on Saturday, 28th February, 2015.

The Finance Minister Mr. Jaitley was accompanied by Jayant Sinha, Minister for State for Finance, Rajiv Mehrishi, Finance Secretary, Shaktikanta Das, Revenue Secretary, Dr. Hasmukh Adhia, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Ms Aradhna Johri, Secretary, Department of Disinvestment, Ms. Anita Kapur, Chairperson, CBDT, Kaushal Shrivastav, Chairman, CBEC, Rajat Bhargava, Joint Secretary (Budget), DEA and senior officers of the Ministry of Finance among others.

The Annual Budget is prepared by the Budget Division of Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) headed by the Joint Secretary (Budget) of the Ministry of Finance. To start the process, the Budget Division issues an Annual Budget circular every year. This Annual Budget Circular contains detailed instructions for the Union Government Ministries/Departments relating to the form and content of the Statement of Budget Estimates to be prepared.

The first Union Budget of Independent India was presented by R.K. Shanmukham Chetty on November 26, 1947. The Union Budgets for the fiscal years 1959-61 to 1963-64, inclusive of the Interim Budget for 1962-63, were presented by Morarji Desai. He presented budgets that included five Annual Budgets, an Interim Budget during his first stint and one Interim Budget and three Final Budgets in his second tenure when he was both the Finance Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister of India. Dr. Manmohan Singh became the Finance Minister and presented the budget for 1991-92, 1992-93, 1993-94, 1994-95 and 1995-96. The Final Budgets for 1996-97 and 1997-98 presented by P. Chidambaram. Yashwant Sinha, presented the Interim and Final Budgets for 1998-99 and four Annual Budgets from 1999-2000 to 2002-2003. P Chidambaram again presented the Union Budgets for 2004-05 to 2008-09. Pranab Mukherjee took a second shot Union Budget for 2009-10 for 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13. Mr. Chidambaram got a third chance in August 2012 and presented the Union Budget 2013-14 and the Interim Budget 2015-16.

Arun Jaitley the Finance Minister in the new Government will present his First Budget in Parliament on 10th July, 2014. This will be his second Budget as the Union Finance Minister.