Halwa ceremony marking the commencement of Budget printing, held at North Block
KS Diwan/ royalpatiala.in/ Chandigarh
Halwa ceremony marking the commencement of Budget printing process for the General Budget 2019-20 was held in North Block here today afternoon in the august presence of the Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman.
Union General Budget 2019-20 is to be presented on 5th July, 2019. To maintain the secrecy of Budget, there is a “lock-in” of the officials involved in making the Budget. Budget press situated in North Block, which houses all the officials in the period leading up to the presentation of the Union Budget. These officers and staff gain touch with their near and dear ones only after the Budget is presented by the Union Finance Minister in Parliament.
At the Halwa Ceremony, the Union Finance Minister was accompanied by the Union Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Anurag Thakur; SS.C.Garg, Finance Secretary; A.B.Pandey, Revenue Secretary; Rajiv Kumar Secretary, DFS, and Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary, DIPAM, among others.
P.C. Mody, Chairman, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) ;P.K. Das, Chairman, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC_, Members of CBDT & CBIC and Arvind Srivastava, Joint Secretary (Budget), besides other officers and staff of the Ministry of Finance involved in the Budget preparation and printing process were also present on the occasion. Later, the Finance Minister took a round of the Press and acquainted herself about the printing process.
