Budget 2023: Nirmala Sitharaman with 'bahi khata' tablet for paperless budget

Nirmala Sitharaman with the Budget 2023 "bahi khata". (Image: ANI/Twitter)

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman  is all set to present the Budget today and stepped out with the all-important digital tablet wrapped in a bahi-khata style pouch on Wednesday, February 1.

Sitharaman has reached the Rashtrapati Bhavan to call on President Droupadi Murmu, where she displayed this year's Budget tablet or "bahi khata" before she presents it in Parliament later. She was joined by Finance Ministry officials.

Delhi | Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reaches Rashtrapati Bhavan to call on President Murmu

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FM will then attend the Union Cabinet meeting, and then present Union Budget 2023-24. pic.twitter.com/hHDSZU7g3j

— ANI (@ANI) February 1, 2023

The famous Budget briefcase was replaced in 2019 by Sitharaman with a "bahi khata" or cloth ledger - a move aimed to do away with the colonial practice where British finance ministers carried a "Gladstone Box" to Parliament. It was later replaced with bags and briefcases. India followed suit.

Read: Briefcase to ‘bahi khata’ to tablet: A short history of Budget presentation

In 2020 too, Sitharaman stuck to the "bahi khata" saying it was "high time" to get rid of the "British hangover".

Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and in a push for the BJP government's flagship programme "Digital India", the Budget was digitised in 2021. The government also launched the Union Budget Mobile App for people to access the key financial document on their smartphones last year.

Sitharaman said that the Budget tablet was easy to carry as well and did away with all the paper needed to print the rather long document.

The customary ‘Halwa’ ceremony was held on Thursday, January 26, to mark the final stage of the Budget preparation process.