Budget 2025: Halwa Ceremony To Take Place In North Block Today | Know What It Is

Right ahead of the Union Budget 2025, the customary halwa ceremony is all set to take place on Friday at North Block in Delhi which houses the Ministry of Finance. This ceremony marks the commencement of the printing process of the annual budget for each financial year.

Following the tradition, the ceremony will be led by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the presence of Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary and secretaries alongside all the other officers and staff involved in the preparation and compilation of the budget.

The budget session of Parliament will commence from February 1 and is slated to conclude on April 4. Budget 2025 will be presented in a paperless format, just like a few of the earlier full Union Budgets.

What is the Halwa ceremony?

Traditionally, every year the halwa ceremony is held a few days before the budget presentation in Parliament which involves the preparation and serving of the Indian dessert ‘halwa’ in a large 'kadhai' (vessel) to the officials and staff involved in budget preparation.

The ceremony is a convention that symbolizes the end of budget preparation and is performed every year right ahead of the "lock-in" period of the budget.

What is the significance of the ceremony?

The halwa ceremony marks the beginning of the "lock-in" process during which the officials are cut off from all sorts of external communication, including mobile phones in a bid to maintain the confidentiality of the budget documents. The officials are allowed to leave the official building only after the financial document is presented in Parliament.

Following the halwa ceremony, the budget documents are also sent for printing after getting the approval of the Prime Minister. In order to further safeguard the process, the Intelligence Bureau carries out surprise inspections of the printing press located in the basement of the ministry.