New Delhi, June 24 (KNN) Marking the commencement of budget printing process for the General Budget 2019-20, halwa ceremony, was held in North Block here in the august presence of Nirmala Sitharaman, the Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs.

Every year a halwa ceremony is organized at the finance ministry to mark the beginning of printing of documents related to the Union budget.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting the first budget for the new Narendra Modi government on July 5.

To maintain the secrecy of Budget, there is a “lock-in” of the officials involved in making the Budget.

At the Halwa Ceremony, the Union Finance Minister was accompanied by the Union Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Anurag Thakur; S.C.Garg, Finance Secretary; A.B.Pandey, Revenue Secretary; Rajiv Kumar Secretary, DFS, and Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary, DIPAM, among others.

Chairman of CBDT, P.C. Mody, P.K. Das, Chairman, CBIC, Members of CBDT & CBIC and Arvind Srivastava, Joint Secretary (Budget), besides other officers and staff of the Ministry of Finance involved in the Budget preparation and printing process were also present on the occasion.

Later, the Finance Minister took a round of the Press and acquainted herself about the printing process.