Budget 2025: FM Sitharaman participates in customary halwa ceremony marking final stage of Budget preparation

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman

Marking the final stage of Union Budget 2025-26 preparations, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman participated in the traditional ‘halwa’ ceremony on Friday. The Union Budget will be unveiled in the Lok Sabha on February 1.

What is halwa ceremony?

The ceremony is a customary tradition where ‘halwa’ is prepared and distributed among finance ministry officials and staff involved in the preparation of the budget. Held in the basement of North Block, the ministry’s New Delhi headquarters, it is attended by the finance minister and senior dignitaries.

Every year before the Budget, the traditional sweet dish halwa is prepared in a large kadhai (wok) and is ritualistically stirred by the finance minister.

Apart from the cultural significance of the ceremony, it symbolises the beginning of the budget 'lock-in' period at the finance ministry.

During this period, all officials and staff directly involved in the budget preparation are required to stay within the ministry premises until the budget is tabled in Parliament. Their phone calls, too, are supervised. They are not allowed to move out and are constantly watched by CCTV cameras and the Intelligence Bureau.

FM Sitharaman to present Union Budget on February 1

Sitharaman is set to present her eighth consecutive Union Budget for 2025-26, amid a GDP growth moderation to 6.4 per cent this fiscal, down from 8.2 per cent in the previous fiscal. Like the previous four full Union Budgets and one Interim, the upcoming one will also be fully paperless.

All the Union Budget documents, including the Annual Financial Statement (commonly known as Budget), Demand for Grants (DG), Finance Bill etc. as prescribed by the Constitution, will be available on the 'Union Budget Mobile App'.

Besides Sitharaman, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary and other senior officials, including Finance Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth and other senior officials were present at the ceremony.