Union Budget 2024: What is the ‘Halwa Ceremony’ and ‘Bahi Khata’?
The Union Budget is around the corner and several phrases have started doing rounds. The ‘Halwa Ceremony’ and ‘Bahi Khata’ are two non-financial terms that stand out amongst the financial jargon.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has already performed the customary Halwa Ceremony, ahead of the Union Budget 2024-25. In this article, we shall understand what Halwa Ceremony and Bahi Khata mean. Keep reading to find out!
What is the Halwa Ceremony?
Marking the final stage of the Union Budget’s preparation, the Halwa Ceremony is an age-old tradition that has been passed on for years now. It is a gesture to recognise the efforts of all the members who are involved in the making of the Union Budget.
The finance minister begins this ceremony by stirring Halwa, a popular Indian sweet dish, in a kadhai (wok). Halwa is then served to the ministers and officials at the Finance Ministry’s headquarters at North Block, New Delhi. Thereafter, the officials and staff are locked.
Officials and staff are locked
Did you know that the 1950 budget was leaked? To prevent this from happening again, those who are directly involved in the budget-making process are locked.
The ‘lock-in’ period begins soon after the Halwa Ceremony. Officials and staff are locked in the basement of the North Block for ten days leading up to the Union Budget. They stay cut off from their families and friends until the budget is presented on February 1st. In order to prevent any leaks. However, the finance minister is the only one who is allowed to walk in and out of the building.
What is the Bahi Khata?
The word Budget comes from the French word ‘bougette’, which means a leather briefcase. Pre-independence, British finance ministers used to arrive at the Indian parliament to present the Budget carrying a Gladstone box, which was eventually replaced by briefcases.
India’s first Finance Minister RK Shanmukham Chetty carried a leather portfolio bag to present the Budget. This practice evolved to carrying a hardbound bag around the 1970s.
Heralding a new chapter in the history of presenting the Union Budget, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman replaced the briefcase with a traditional bahi khata to relinquish what she called a “colonial practice.” A bahi khata is like a ledger that Indian households and small enterprises maintain to manage their expenses.
Over the years, Nirmala Sitharaman evolved the bahi khata to a made-in-India tablet. The Budget speech is now read from the tablet, instead of printed papers, however, it is held in a bahi khata like cover. This move was also seen as an effort towards a push for digitization. In fact, the lock-in period for the officials was reduced from nearly two weeks to merely five days after this.
Union Budget 2024-25
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting the Budget for the fiscal year 2024-25 on February 01, 2024, in the Parliament. It will be an interim Budget designed to tide the government over, until a new administration takes charge as India braces itself for the general elections. The full-fledged Budget for the fiscal year will be presented after the new government is formed.
In Closing
The current government has done away with several aspects of the Budget that were followed for years. It merged the Railway Budget with the Union Budget, advanced the date of the Budget presentation to February 1 instead of the last date of that month and moved to a digital format. However, the ‘Halwa Ceremony’ as a tradition survived.
All the announcements made in the Budget are available on the Union Budget mobile app. These announcements are categorized under various sections which makes it easier to get the needed details.
FAQs
The Halwa Ceremony is a traditional event that signifies the commencement of the printing of budget documents for the upcoming fiscal year. The Finance Minister and other officials and staff involved in the preparation of the budget eat ‘halwa’ and Indian sweet dish to mark the last stage of the preparation of the Union Budget.
The Halwa Ceremony typically takes place a few days before the presentation of the Union Budget in Parliament. It usually takes place at the North Block of the Central Secretariat in New Delhi, which houses the Ministry of Finance.
The name “Halwa Ceremony” is derived from the tradition of serving halwa (a sweet dish) to the entire staff involved in the budget-making process on this occasion. Serving halwa is considered auspicious and is believed to bring sweetness and prosperity to the budget-making process.
Following the ceremony, the officials and staff involved in the budget preparation are required to stay in the basement of the North Block until the Budget is presented in Parliament, to maintain confidentiality.
The Halwa Ceremony is typically an internal event attended by government officials, and it is not open to the general public.
A bahi khata is like a ledger that Indian households and small enterprises maintain to manage their expenses. Heralding a new chapter in the history of presenting the Union Budget, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman replaced the briefcase with a traditional bahi khata to relinquish what she called a “colonial practice.”
All the announcements made in the Budget are available on the Union Budget mobile app. These announcements are categorized under various sections which makes it easier to get the needed details.
