Budget 2023: All you need to know about ‘Halwa’ ceremony to be held tomorrow

Budget 2023: 'Halwa Ceremony' marks the beginning of printing of documents relating to the Budget. (File photo from Twitter @FinMinIndia)

A customary ‘Halwa’ ceremony will be held on Thursday, January 26, to mark the final stage of the Budget preparation process. The Halwa ceremony is taking place five days before Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents the Union Budget for the fiscal year 2023-2024 on February 1.

The Halwa ceremony is an annual ritual in which the traditional dessert is prepared and served to officials and staff members of the finance ministry who were involved in the preparation of the Budget. It is organised every year at the Finance Ministry headquarters in the Secretariat building’s North Block basement in the national capital of New Delhi and attended by the finance minister and other high-ranking officials.

“Along with the Union FM, the Halwa ceremony will be attended by the Union Ministers of State for Finance, along with Secretaries of the Ministry of Finance besides senior officials and members of the Union Budget Press,” the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

Celebrations are usually kicked off by the finance minister stirring a cauldron or kadhai full of halwa and then serving it to colleagues.

The Halwa ceremony, marking the final stage of the Budget preparation process for Union Budget 2023-24, will be held tomorrow in the presence of Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Smt. @nsitharaman, in the Budget Press situated inside North Block. (1/4) pic.twitter.com/PZJuyk6R5x

— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) January 25, 2023

To maintain the secrecy of the Budget, the Finance Ministry headquarters becomes a ‘Fort Knox’ of sorts. Officials involved in Budget preparation undergo a “lock in” at their workplaces and isolate themselves with strict rules in place to ensure no details are leaked out. During this time, phone calls are supervised, officials are not allowed to move out and must stay under surveillance from CCTV cameras and the Intelligence Bureau.

The Halwa ceremony is a tradition that has been carried out for decades in the basement of the North Block that also houses the special printing press, which printed the Budget documents from 1980 until 2020.

Since 2020, however, the Budget has been presented in paperless format. This year too, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will deliver the Budget in paperless format.