Union Budget goes digital! FinMin replaces Swadeshi 'bahi khata' with tablet

New Delhi, Feb 1: With the Union Budget 2021 taking place in few hours today, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman replaced the Swadeshi 'bahi khata' and switched to a tablet as she set to be delivered in paperless form for the first time.

 

 

The Finance Minister, who dressed in a red and cream colour saree, was seen carrying a tablet kept inside a red coloured cover with a golden coloured national emblem embossed on it. She was accompanied by MoS Finance Anurag Thakur and other officials from her ministry.

 

Sitharaman met President Ram Nath Kovind before presenting the budget at 11 am today. "Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, MoS Finance & Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur, and senior officials of the Ministry of Finance, called on President Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan before presenting the Union Budget 2021-22," the President tweeted.

 

In 2019, Sitharaman ditched the long-standing tradition of carrying budget documents in a leather briefcase and went swadeshi with a 'bahi-khata'. Taking a dig at the Opposition, she had said that the Modi government is not a "suitcase-carrying government".

 

This year, the Union Budget will be delivered in paperless form for the first time. The budget 2021 assumes greater significance as it comes amid the COVID pandemic which has caused economic disruption.

 

Finance Minister had launched the "Union Budget Mobile App" for hassle-free access of Budget documents by Members of Parliament (MPs) and the general public using the simplest form of digital convenience, according to the Finance Ministry.

 

The App facilitates complete access to 14 Union Budget documents, including the Annual Financial Statement (commonly known as Budget), Demand for Grants (DG), and Finance Bill as prescribed by the Constitution.

 

In 1947, India's first Finance Minister RK Shanmukham Chetty carried a leather portfolio to present the first Budget. Before Sitharaman, a long-standing tradition in connection with the budget presentation was broken during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government with the then Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha presenting the budget at 11 am rather than at the traditional time of 5 pm.

 

Since then all governments have been presenting the budget at 11 am.