Budget Again Goes Green, Cuts Down On Printing To Minimum

Since coming to power, Modi govt has curtailed printing of Budget copies — initially cutting copies distributed to journalists and outside analysts

NEW DELHI: India’s annual Budget will go green this year too, cutting down on the vast printing of documents that was associated with the presentation of tax proposals and financial statement of Asia’s third largest economy.

The Budget documents will be available mostly digitally, with only a handful of physical copies, officials said.

The printing of several hundred copies of the voluminous Budget documents was such an elaborate exercise that printing staffhad to be quarantined inside the printing press in the basement of North Block — the seat of the finance ministry — for at least a couple of weeks.

This quarantine and the beginning of the printing would begin with a traditional ‘Halwa ceremony’ attended by finance minister, deputy finance ministers and senior officials in the ministry.

Since coming to power, the Modi government has curtailed printing of the Budget copies — initially cutting copies distributed to journalists and outside analysts and then reducing those provided to Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs citing an outbreak of the pandemic.