What is ‘Halwa ceremony’, performed before the budget at Ministry of Finance? What does it signify? | Pre budget facts
On this auspicious day of 72nd Republic Day lets discuss some more facts in the Pre budget facts series.
In the last post we had discussed about the most interesting thing about this years budget would be that it is going to be paperless and app is launched where each and every person can read all details related to budget and no budget copies would be printed even for the parliament.
Although this year no budget would be printed but a ceremony linked with the printing of budget was performed on 23.01.2021 i.e. the ‘Halwa Ceremony’.
Halwa ceremony is an annual ceremony performed by the Ministry of Finance every year after the finalisation and before the printing of budget starts.
The ceremony is performed to mark the finalisation of budget and to thank the persons associated with the preparation and printing of budget for their hardwork and dedication.
In this ceremony an Indian sweet i.e. “Halwa” is prepared and served to each and every person associated with the Budget.
Another interesting fact about this halwa ceremony is that after the budget is finalised and goes to printing the halwa ceremony is performed after which none of the officials associated with the budget can visit their home or contact their family member to maintain the secrecy of the contents of the budget.
This includes all the budget committee members, people associated with the printing of the budget. All of them stay in the basement of the North block of ministry of finance and free to go home after budget is presented in the parliament.
Although some of the senior members of the budget committee are allowed to go home every day but others stay in the basement.
This time even though the budget will not be printed as we have discussed in our previous post and same will be presented in digital form, the ‘halwa ceremony’ was performed marking the finalisation of budget.