The ceremonial Halwa ceremony, marking the final stage of the Union Budget preparation, is scheduled for 5 pm Friday at the North Block, with India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman following the customary practice. The Union Budget will be presented a week later on Saturday, February 1.
The Halwa ceremony is an annual ritual performed five days before the Union Budget is presented to the Union Cabinet for presentation in Parliament. With this, the ‘lock-in’ process begins. Officials involved in the Union Budget preparation shun contacts from the outside of the office.
The ceremony involves the preparation and serving of “halwa” (an Indian sweet dish) to officials and staff involved in the preparation of the Union Budget document. Sitharaman, who has presented seven Union Budgets till now, has participated in the ritual enthusiastically. Her photographs of stirring the dessert during its preparation have often made it to national newspaper pages.
This ceremony marks the beginning of a lock-in period for the officials drafting the Union Budget. This is critical for maintaining the secrecy of the Union Budget document before it is presented to the country’s legislators in the lower house of Parliament, the Lok Sabha.
The officials remain confined within the North Block premises, cut off from external communication, and are prohibited from using mobile phones. To rule out every possibility of the leaking of the documents, the Intelligence Bureau is authorised to conduct surprise inspections of the printing press in the ministry’s basement.
When prepared, the budget documents are sent for approval of the prime minister, and afterwards for printing the final Union Budget that the finance minister tables in Parliament.
The Budget Session of Parliament is scheduled to begin on January 31, when the Economic Survey detailing the health of Indian economy will be tabled. Parliament is scheduled to stay in the Budget Session until April 4, with an inter-session break from February 14 to March 10.
As it will be the first Parliament session of the year, President Droupadi Murmu will address the joint sitting of two houses on January 31.
Being the first full fiscal year budget after the return of the Modi government in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, all eyes will be on the new announcements by Sitharaman on February 1. It also comes against the backdrop of slower growth in India’s GDP and weak consumption reports. Economy grew by 5.4 per cent in the July-September quarter, significantly lower than RBI’s forecast of 7 per cent.
The Reserve Bank of India in its latest monetary policy cut India’s growth forecast for 2024-25 to 6.6 per cent from 7.2 per cent. The Economic Survey tabled in Parliament last year projected India’s real GDP growth at 6.5-7 per cent for 2024-25.
Real GDP growth refers to the reported economic growth adjusted for inflation. India recorded an impressive GDP growth rate of 8.2 per cent in 2023-24, remaining the fastest-growing major economy. The growth rate was 7.2 per cent in 2022-23 and 8.7 per cent in 2021-22.
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Union Budget 2025: Halwa ceremony to kick off ‘lock-in’ period today
