New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Un ion Minister of State for Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary participated in the Halwa ceremony at North Block on Tuesday. The customary ceremony marks the final stage of the Budget preparation process for Union Budget 2026-27. Sitharaman will present the Budget on February 1 in the Lok Sabha.
The Halwa ceremony was organised at the North Block on Raisina Hill, the old address of the Finance Ministry. The new premises at the Kartyava Bhawan-I do not have a printing press.
The traditional Halwa Ceremony
“The ‘Halwa ceremony’ precedes the ‘lock-in’ of the officials involved in preparation of the Union Budget. At the Halwa Ceremony, the Union Finance Minister was accompanied by the Secretaries of all the Departments under the Ministry of Finance and other senior officers involved in Budget preparation,” the official release stated.
The Halwa ceremony is a customary ritual in which traditional dessert ‘halwa’ is prepared. The officials and staff members of the finance ministry who are involved in the preparation of the budget are served the halwa.
The Finance Minister and most of her team were shifted from the iconic and majestic North Block to the modern central secretariat office housed in Kartavya Bhawan in September 2025.
As part of the ceremony, the Union Finance Minister also took a tour of the Budget Press and reviewed the preparations, besides extending her best wishes to the entire budget team.
Sitharaman is going to present Budget 2026-27, the ninth straight budget in a row.
Digital Access for Budget Documents
All Union Budget documents, including the Annual Financial Statement (commonly known as the Budget), Demand for Grants (DG), Finance Bill, etc., will also be available on the ‘Union Budget Mobile App’ for hassle-free access to Budget documents by Members of Parliament (MPs) and the general public in a digitally accessible mode, the release mentioned.