New Delhi: The final stage of the budget preparation process for Interim Union Budget 2024 commenced over halwa at the North Block here today.
A customary halwa ceremony is performed every year before the “lock-in” process of Budget preparation begins.
As part of the ceremony, Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also took a round of the Budget Press and reviewed the preparations besides extending her best wishes to the officials concerned.
Like the previous three full Union Budgets, the Interim Union Budget 2024 will also be delivered in paperless form. The Interim Union Budget 2024 is to be presented on February 1, 2024.
All the Union Budget documents, including the Annual Financial Statement (commonly known as Budget), Demand for Grants (DG), Finance Bill etc. as prescribed by the Constitution, will be available on the “Union Budget Mobile App” for hassle-free access to Budget documents by Members of Parliament (MPs) and the general public using the simplest form of digital convenience.
It is bilingual (English and Hindi) and will be available on the Mobile App in both Android and iOS platforms after the completion of the Budget speech by the Union Finance Minister in Parliament on February 1, 2024. The App can also be downloaded from the Union Budget Web Portal (www.indiabudget.gov.in).
At the halwa ceremony, the Union Finance Minister was also accompanied by Dr. T.V. Somanathan, Finance Secretary and Secretary, Expenditure; Ajay Seth, Secretary, Economic Affairs; Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretary, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM); Sanjay Malhotra, Secretary, Revenue; Nitin Gupta, Chairman, Central Board for Direct Taxes (CBDT); Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, Chairman, Central Board for Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC); and Ashish Vachhani, Additional Secretary (Budget), besides others officers and staff of the Ministry of Finance, involved in the Budget preparation and compilation process, were also present on the occasion.
– global bihari bureau
