Halwa ceremony marking the commencement of Budget printing process for the General Budget 2019-20 was held in North Block here Saturday afternoon in the august presence of the Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman.

Union General Budget 2019-20 is to be presented on 5^th 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, Shri Anurag Thakur; Shri S.C.Garg, Finance Secretary; Shri A.B.Pandey, Revenue Secretary; Shri Rajiv Kumar Secretary, DFS, and Shri Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary, DIPAM, among others.

Shri P.C. Mody, Chairman, CBDT; Shri P.K. Das, Chairman, CBIC, Members of CBDT & CBIC and Shri 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.

Budget secrecy lock-in preserves confidentiality ahead of presentation, triggering restricted access during the printing process. The Halwa ceremony marked the start of printing for the Union General Budget 2019-20 and confirmed administrative confidentiality measures: officials involved in preparation and printing are placed under a lock-in to preserve secrecy until the Finance Minister presents the Budget, with the North Block press serving as the secured site and senior finance officials overseeing the process.