Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget on February 1, the preparations for which began in October. The mega exercise is a long-drawn process and involves various levels of secrecy and security to prevent any kind of leak.

Here’s how the government keeps Union Budget secret every year till it’s presented:

Officials sequestered

All officials involved in the Budget-making process are supposed to live in the basement of the Finance Ministry in the North Block and they are closely monitored by the Intelligence Bureau personnel, assisted by Delhi Police.

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According to media reports, key officials, including some legal experts from the law ministry, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) officials, and the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) officials are sequestered few days before the speech, a few Press Information Bureau officials are also sent to the basement.

During the isolation, the officials are not allowed to communicate with the outside world and their families are provided a phone number where they can leave messages in case of emergency. A medical team is stationed inside the ministry to tackle any emergency situation.

The Blue Sheet

A blue-coloured sheet, known as the Blue Sheet, contains all key economic numbers, which form the basis for the Budget and is updated as new data comes in. The finance minister is not allowed to take it outside the ministry premises and only the joint secretary (Budget) is given custody of the secret paper.

The ‘halwa’ ceremony

Before the printing, which normally starts a week before the Budget presentation, a ‘Halwa’ ceremony is conducted and the dish is distributed to the entire staff. The ceremony is also attended by the finance minister.

After the sweet dish is served, a large number of officials and support staff, who are directly associated with the printing process, are required to stay in the ministry.

The printing

The officials involved in the printing process live within the North Block basement area where the presses are kept. Only very senior officials in the finance ministry are permitted to go home. The area is a no-phone zone and nobody is allowed to take their phones inside, not even the finance minister.

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Blocking of Internet

Private email facilities to most computers in the ministry are blocked and to prevent cyberattack or theft, the computers inside the press area are delinked from the National Informatics Centre (NIC) servers.

An intercepting exchange is set up to tap landline telephones installed in the chambers of bureaucrats and electronic jammers are also installed inside North Block. Only one landline remains functional from which outgoing calls cannot be made.

The secrecy around the Budget is a fallout of an incident in 1950, when the printing took place at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The venue of printing was then moved to a government press on Minto Road in Delhi. Subsequently, the North Block basement at the capital’s Secretariat Building became the permanent place for printing Budget papers since 1980.