{"id":169689,"date":"2025-02-03T12:09:20","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T06:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/?p=169689"},"modified":"2025-02-03T12:09:21","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T06:39:21","slug":"budget-2025-10-important-points-about-the-union-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/budget-2025-10-important-points-about-the-union-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget 2025: 10 Important Points About the Union Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Union Budget of India, known as the Annual Financial Statement under Article 112 of the Constitution, is prepared by the Ministry of Finance for the upcoming financial year. It details the government’s planned expenditures, anticipated revenues, and economic strategies. The budget is unveiled on February 1 and is set to take effect by April. Prior to 2016, it was traditionally presented on the last working day of February. The Budget Division of the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) oversees its preparation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facts About the Union Budget:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman<\/strong> is set to present the Budget for the fiscal year 2025-26 on February 1. Here are 10 interesting facts about the Union Budget.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Change in Presentation Date:<\/strong>\u00a0Until 2016, the Union Budget was traditionally presented on the last working day of February. However, this changed with the presentation date now set for February 1.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Historical Timing Shift:<\/strong>\u00a0Until 1999, the Union Budget announcement occurred at 5:00 pm, following a colonial tradition. Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha changed the timing to 11 am starting in 2001.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Halwa Ceremony Tradition:<\/strong>\u00a0A week before presenting the Budget, a \u2018Halwa ceremony\u2019 is conducted where the Finance Minister distributes \u2018Halwa\u2019 among ministry officials, marking the beginning of the \u2018lock-in\u2019 period.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Digital Transition:<\/strong>\u00a0With the adoption of digital methods, the lock-in period has been reduced to just five days from the previous two weeks.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Briefcase Tradition Discontinuation:<\/strong>\u00a0The tradition of finance ministers carrying the Budget in a leather briefcase, in practice until 2018, has been discontinued.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Paperless Budget Innovation:<\/strong>\u00a0On February 1, 2021, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced the first paperless Budget using a digital tablet.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Two Parts of the Union Budget:<\/strong>\u00a0The Union Budget comprises two parts \u2013 the Annual Financial Statement and the Demand for Grants. The Annual Financial Statement summarizes the government\u2019s revenue for the upcoming year, while the Demand for Grants outlines estimated expenditures.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. Parliamentary Procedure:<\/strong>\u00a0The finance minister presents the Union Budget in a speech, which is followed by discussions and voting in the Lok Sabha.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. Mid-Year Review:<\/strong>\u00a0A \u2018mid-year review\u2019 or \u2018half-yearly report\u2019 provides updates on the government\u2019s financial performance during the fiscal year.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. Presidential Approval Tradition:<\/strong>\u00a0Before presenting the Union Budget in Parliament, the finance minister meets the President at Rashtrapati Bhavan to seek approval, a custom followed for many years. Following the Budget speech, the finance minister, along with other ministers, engages in discussions with stakeholders.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Union Budget of India, known as the Annual Financial Statement under Article 112 of the Constitution, is prepared by the Ministry of Finance for the upcoming financial year. It details the government’s planned expenditures, anticipated revenues, and economic strategies. The budget is unveiled on February 1 and is set to take effect by April. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":169695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5359],"tags":[865,72],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-169689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs-february-2025","tag-ministry-of-finance","tag-union-budget-current-affairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/419"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169689"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169696,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169689\/revisions\/169696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169689"},{"taxonomy":"offerexpiration","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/offerexpiration?post=169689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}