E-Paper
Budget 2023: Sitharaman presents digital documents inside bahi-khata style pouch
Following the trend of last two budgets, the Finance Minister presented the budget for the fiscal year 2023-24 in a paperless form.
Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the last full Union budget under the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA government before the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Following the trend of last two budgets, the Finance Minister presented the budget for the fiscal year 2023-24 in a paperless form. She carried the budget documents in a made-in-India tablet, which had a red-coloured ‘bahi-khata’ style pouch enclosed with the national emblem in gold.
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She posed for the traditional 'briefcase' picture outside her office along with her team of officials before heading to meet the President Droupadi Murmu. She, however, was holding a tablet instead of a briefcase to present the Budget in a digital format.
The tablet was introduced in 2021 in a bid to present India's first paperless budget amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. During her tenure as Finance Minister, Sitharaman drew the nation's attention time and again by different modifications during budget session. In 2019, she ditched the age-old tradition to carry a briefcase to the Parliament to present the budget and opted for Bahi Khata, signifying the practice of managing budget in Indian households, small shops and enterprises.
Sitharaman presented the 2020 Union budget in the same format and said that it was time Indai shed the ‘British hangover’. After going paperless, the Union finance ministry also launched the Union Budget Mobile App for the convenience of lawmakers and general public to access the budget documents.
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The word ‘budget’ has its origin in French word ‘bougette’, which means leather briefcase. For years, Finance Minsters have been presenting their yearly budget carrying the documents in leather briefcases to the Parliament. This tradition originated under British rule and India's first Finance Minister RK Shankmukham carried the first Union budget after India's independence followed by several other Finance Ministers.
There were some Finance Ministers who carried their budget documents in files instead of the traditional briefcase. Similarly, there have been modifications in the briefcases carried by other ministers. In 1974, Yashwantrao Chavan carried a steel-lined briefcase and Yashwant Singh carried a briefcase with buckles and straps in 1998. In 1991, Manmohan Singh presented the budget carrying documents in a black briefcase similar to a Gladstone box. P Chidambaram carried a leather briefcase similar to that of the British and Arun Jaitley carried a tan briefcase.
(With PTI inputs)
