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.
As per the Constitution, the Union Budget is to be presented in
the Parliament on such a day as the President of India may direct. The Union
Budget for the current year (2015-16) would be presented on 28th February,
2015.
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. Mr. Vyas 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. After Mr. Morarji
Desai’s resignation, Smt. Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, took
over the charge of the Ministry of Finance to become the only woman to hold the
post of the Finance Minister. Pranab Mukherjee, the
first Rajya Sabha member to
hold the Finance portfolio, presented the Annual Budgets for 1982-83, 1983–84
and 1984-85. Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, presented the
Budget for 1987-89 after V P Singh, then Finance
Minister quit his Government. N. D. Tiwary presented
the Union Budget for 1988-89, S B Chavan for 1989-90,
while Madhu Dandawate
presented the Union budget for 1990-91. Due to political developments, early
elections were held in May 1991 and Dr. Manmohan
Singh became the Finance Minister and presented the budget for 1991-92,
1992-93, 1993-94, 1994-95 and 1995-96. After Lok Sabha General Elections in 1996, a non-Congress Ministry
assumed office. The Final Budget for 1996-97 and 1997-98 were presented by P.
Chidambaram. After the General Elections in March 1998 that led to formation of
Government by the Bharatiya Janta
Party (BJP) led NDA, Yashwant Sinha,
the then Finance Minister in the Government, presented the Interim and Final
Budgets for 1998-99 and four Annual Budgets from 1999-2000 to 2002-2003. Due to
Lok Sabha General Elections
in May 2004, an Interim Budget was presented by Jaswant
Singh. After the elections, Congress led UPA formed the Government at the
Centre and P Chidambaram became the Finance Minister who presented the Union
Budgets for 2004-05 to 2008-09. He was succeeded by Pranab
Mukherjee who presented the Interim and Final Union Budget for 2009-10 and also
Union Budgets for 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13. Mr. Chidambaram took over again
the charge of the Ministry of Finance in August 2012 and presented the Union
Budget 2013-14 and the Interim Budget 2015-16.
After the Lok Sabha
General Elections in 2014, Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) led by Narendra
Modi formed the Government at the Centre in May 2014.
Arun Jaitley took over the
charge as the Finance Minister in the new Government. He presented his First
Budget in Parliament on 10th July, 2014. This will be his second Budget as the
Union Finance Minister.
[Source: PIB (MoF) Press Release dated
19th February 2015]