BJP-led NDA government will present the first full Budget of its third term, having tabled an interim budget on February 1, the customary date for Budget presentation…reports Asian Lite News
Ahead of the Budget Session of Parliament, Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju will hold a meeting with the floor leaders of political parties in both the houses of the Parliament, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs said in a press release.
The All-Party Meeting will be held at 11:00 am on July 21 at the Main Committee Room, Parliament House Annexe, New Delhi.
The Budget Session of Parliament will commence on July 22 and subject to exigencies of Government Business, the session may conclude on August 12.
This will be the first such meeting to be attended by newly-appointed Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi.
The all-party meeting comes ahead of the presentation of the first Union Budget to be presented to the 18th Lok Sabha. The Opposition is expected to present its wishlist at the meeting, as will the Janata Dal (United) and Telugu Desam Party, the BJP’s key allies in the ruling NDA.
The TMC conveyed its inability to attend the meeting in a letter to from its Rajya Sabha Parliamentary leader Derek O’Brien to Rijiju. “For 30 years now, July 21 has been observed as Martyrs Day in Bengal in honour of our 13 colleagues who were unlawfully killed in a police firing on the same day in 1993,” O’Brien said, adding that all TMC MPs would be in West Bengal on the day and would not be able to attend the meeting.
Also, on July 22, the BJP-led NDA government will present the first full Budget of its third term, having tabled an interim budget on February 1, the customary date for Budget presentation.
Halwa ceremony held
The Halwa ceremony, marking the final stage of the budget preparation process for full Budget of 2024-25, was held in North Block on Tuesday in the presence of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State Pankaj Chaudhary, and secretaries. Officers and staff involved in the budget preparation and compilation process were also present on the occasion.
A customary Halwa ceremony is performed every year before the “lock-in” process of the budget preparation begins. The Halwa Ceremony is a preparation of the Indian sweet dish in a large ‘kadhai’ at the North Block.
The Finance Minister ceremoniously stirs the ‘kadhai’ and generally serves the halwa to everyone involved in the Budget-making process. This tradition is also a way to acknowledge the hard work of all the finance ministry officials. The halwa ceremony heralds the process of printing all the budget documents ahead of the presentation in Parliament.
The halwa ceremony is a significant event as it also marks the beginning of lockdown at the finance ministry. This means no official is allowed to leave the ministry compound. Everyone part of the Budget team is allowed to leave only after the financial document is presented in Parliament. The printing of the Union Budget inside the basement located at the North Block has become a permanent feature since 1980.
The budget session of parliament will begin on July 22 and, according to schedule, will end on August 12.
With this upcoming Budget Presentation, Sitharaman will surpass the record set by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who presented five annual budgets and one interim budget between 1959 and 1964 as finance minister. Sitharaman’s upcoming Budget speech would be her sixth.
Like the previous few full Union Budgets, the Budget 2024 will also be delivered in paperless form. An Interim Union Budget 2024 was presented on February 1, as the country was due for general elections.
The interim budget, tabled on February 1, took care of the financial needs of the intervening period until a government was formed after the Lok Sabha polls, after which a full budget was supposed to be presented by the new government in July.
All the Union Budget documents, including the Annual Financial Statement (commonly known as Budget), Demand for Grants (DG), Finance Bill, as prescribed by the Constitution, will be available on the “Union Budget Mobile App” for hassle-free access of budget documents by Members of Parliament (MPs) and people.
The app is bilingual (English and Hindi) and is available on both Android and iOS platforms. The App can also be downloaded from the Union Budget Web Portal (www.indiabudget.gov.in). (ANI)
