Printing process for General Budget 2019-20 commences with ‘Halwa’ Ceremony

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : The ‘Halwa’ ceremony marking the commencement of printing process for the General Budget 2019-20 was held at North Block here on June 22, 2019, afternoon in the presence of the Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Union General Budget 2019-20 is to be presented on July 5, 2019. To maintain the secrecy of Budget, there is a “lock-in” of the officials involved in making the Budget. Budget press is situated in North Block, which 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 Union Finance Minister in Parliament.

At the Halwa Ceremony, the Union Finance Minister was accompanied by Union Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur; S C Garg, Finance Secretary; A B Pandey, Revenue Secretary; Rajiv Kumar Secretary, DFS, and Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary, DIPAM, among others, according to a PIB release.

P C Mody, Chairman, CBDT, P K 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. Later, the Finance Minister took a round of the Press and acquainted herself of the printing process.