Team News Riveting
New Delhi, January 12
The Union Budget for the financial year 2021-22 would go paperless for the first time in Independent India as the government intended to refrain from printing the copies in the wake of the safety issues posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, the customary “halwa ceremony” that takes place every year before the printing of the Budget copies would be held. The Union Finance Ministry has a tradition of printing the union budget annually in its in-house press. Around 100 employees of the ministry have to stay together for almost 15 days until the papers are printed, sealed and delivered on the day of the Budget.
The pandemic has forced the government to consider halting the practice of printing and look for alternatives, as it would be difficult to maintain social distancing in limited space. Budget documents are not printed outside for fear of compromising the secrecy around the proposals. However, the soft copies of the Budget will continue to be made available.
This year there will be no trucks loaded with Budget papers at the Parliament complex on the day of Budget, i.e; February 1. Similarly, the finance minister doesn’t need to carry either a bahi khata or a briefcase to carry the Budget documents. In 2019, finance minister Nirmala Sitharman abandoned the practice of carrying a leather briefcase and instead chose the more traditional bahi khata.
Although the central government had first decided to cut down on the printing of hard copies of the Budget in 2016-17 in a bid to go green, this would be for the first time when printing would be stopped altogether.
