Budget 2018: Do you know why the tradition of eating 'halwa' is practised on the Budget Day?
India is one of the countries where customs and traditions always come first. Being one of the diversified cultures, every good work we begin is with our own belief. A government of India does not fall far behind in following their country's rituals especially on the most important financial document presentation day i.e. Budget. This will be the Modi govt last budget before the 2019 polls.
As you might have heard from your grandparents who stop us and ensure to eat something sweet before exiting claiming that it brings fortune to us. The same belief and values have been followed by the Government of India on the day of Budget. Recently, the halwa ceremony was organized ahead of the Budget Session of Parliament commencing on 29 January. India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley performed the symbolic 'Halwa Ceremony'. But, do you know about this tradition that has been followed for a long time. If not then, we are here to tell you the history behind this story.
The Budget presentation kicks off with traditions and rituals where halwa, an India dessert, is distributed among the Finance Ministry staff. The halwa ceremony takes place in the presence of the Finance Minister. It was believed that before the presentation of the budget to the country, the officials who are involved including Finance Minister are tasked with the printing of budget are locked up in a basement of North Block. Therefore, the tradition began since the first presentation of India's first Union Budget in 1947.
A blue piece of paper or blue sheet that contains the important numbers around which hundreds of budget pages document prepared which is used to be guarded the secret archives in the Vatican. As per the reports, Finance Minister not allowed to keep it. The secret sheets get updated as the new data come in, which help in framing the whole budget process.
Only the joint secretary allowed to keep the custody of the secret paper. According to the officials, earlier, budget papers were printed inside Rashtrapati Bhavan till 1950. Later, it was moved to a government press in Minto Road due to the data gets leaked in 1950. Since 1980, the budget printing was started in North Block, which remains same till the date.
