Budget 2023: The Modi government is all set to present its last full Union Budget on February 1, 2023. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman took part in the traditional ‘halwa ceremony’, an annual ritual that heralds the Union Budget, on Thursday. The ceremony has returned after a break of one year. The ministry gave the ‘halwa ceremony’ a miss because of COVID-19.
From RK Shanmukham Chetty presenting the first Union Budget in 1947 with a briefcase, to Nirmala Sithraman presenting it via a tablet PC, Union Budget has gone through several changes over the years. Here’s a lowdown on how this tradition has changed.
If you always wondered why finance ministers brought budgets in leather briefcases, let us tell you that the word ‘budget’ has originated from the French word ‘Bougette’, which means a leather briefcase. This tradition of carrying a leather briefcase was handed over to us by the British. The tradition was followed for several decades and the last Finance Minister to do so was Piyush Goyal. With Arun Jaitely battling severe illness in 2019, Goyal was entrusted with the responsibility of presenting the budget. It was the last time when camerapersons clicked a finance minister with a traditional briefcase.
PHOTOS: Halwa ceremony returns as Budget 2023 enters final stage
In 2020, newly-appointed Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman decided to do away with the tradition and introduced ‘bahi khata’ or the ledger book. ‘Bahi khata’ is closely connected with Indian tradition and has been part of business class and households.
Sitharaman embraced digital technology and present a paperless budget in 2021. This was in sync with the Digital India push of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was in 2021 when she posed with a tablet wrapped inside a red tablet sleeve with the national emblem on top. In order to make the Budget accessible to everyone, the government even launched an app.
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