Budget 2024: What is a bahi-khata? Why did Sitharaman replace briefcase?

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents Budget 2024 in a traditional 'bahi-khata' style pouch with a digital tablet, marking her 7th consecutive budget.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, dressed in a white silk saree, will present the Union Budget 2024-25 in Parliament with a digital tablet wrapped in a traditional 'bahi-khata' style pouch, continuing the paperless format adopted by the Narendra Modi government.

New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman carries a red pouch carrying the Budget documents, outside the Finance Ministry in North Block before leaving for the Parliament where she will table the Union Budget 2024-25, in New Delhi, Tuesday, July 23, 2024. (PTI Photo/Shahbaz Khan)

Sitharaman had replaced the colonial budget briefcase with a 'bahi-khata' in 2019 and switched to a digital tablet in 2021. This marks her seventh consecutive budget.

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What is a bahi-khata?

It’s a red pouch that holds the tablet that has Budget documents. It has a golden national emblem put on it. Bahi-khata replaced the traditional briefcase in 2019.

From briefcase to bahi-khata: How India Budget presentation changed over years

• The budget briefcase tradition started in the 18th century in Britain.

• The term 'Budget' is derived from the French word 'bougette', meaning leather briefcase.

• In 1860, British budget chief William E. Gladstone used a red suitcase with the Queen's monogram to carry his budget papers.

• India's first finance minister, RK Shanmukham Chetty, used a leather portfolio in 1947. Subsequent finance ministers, including Manmohan Singh and Pranab Mukherjee, used various briefcases.

• In 2019, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman replaced the briefcase with a traditional 'bahi-khata'.

• Since 2021, Sitharaman has presented the budget in a paperless format, using a digital tablet wrapped in a 'bahi-khata' style cover.

Why Sitharaman replaced briefcase with bahi-khata?

FM Nirmala Sitharaman uses the bahi-khata to “break from the colonial legacy” of the leather briefcase. She said after her 2019 Budget presentation that it was time to move on from the “British hangover” and adopt something uniquely Indian. She also found it easier to carry.

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Sitharaman went digital in 2021

Congress leader and ex-FM P Chidambaram had criticised her choice, suggesting that a future Congress finance minister would use an iPad. However, Sitharaman adopted a digital tablet in 2021, 2022, and 2023.