Sat Jan 25 01:30:35 UTC 2025: ## Union Budget 2025-26 Preparation Culminates in Traditional ‘Halwa’ Ceremony

**New Delhi, January 25, 2025** – Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman participated in the customary “halwa” ceremony on Friday, marking the completion of the Union Budget 2025-26 preparation. The ceremony, held in the basement of North Block, involved the preparation and distribution of the traditional sweet to finance ministry officials involved in the budget process.

This year’s budget, to be presented on February 1st, will be Sitharaman’s eighth consecutive budget presentation. It comes against a backdrop of GDP growth moderating to 6.4% in the current fiscal year.

The event signifies the start of a “lock-in” period for the officials, who remain secluded to maintain the secrecy of the budget documents. While the duration of this period has shortened to five days due to the digitalization of the budget process, it remains a tradition. All budget documents are now available through the “Union Budget Mobile App”, marking a departure from the previous era of extensive physical printing.

Although the Modi government has modernized several aspects of budget preparation since 2014, including the digitization of the budget and merging of the Rail Budget, the “halwa” ceremony continues as a testament to tradition and a gesture of appreciation for the involved officials. The ceremony also marks the end of the work by the team who have spent weeks preparing the budget, and signals the start of a short period of lockdown until the budget is presented to Parliament. Previously, the printing was done at the Rashtrapati Bhavan and later moved to Minto road after a leak. The printing has taken place in the North Block basement for 40 years until 2020 when it was transitioned to a digital system.

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