2019 Union Budget - Finance Minister Sitharaman breaks away from tradition, replaces budget briefcase with four-fold red cloth Friday July 05,2019

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to present Union Budget 2019-20 today

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her maiden Budget on Friday, becoming only the second woman, after Indira Gandhi, to do so. FM will present the Union Budget 2019 amidst wide expectations given that Prime Minister Narendra Modi came back to power following a bigger mandate than his first term.

Nirmala Sitharaman's budget team comprises Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur and Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian. The official team is led by Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg, Expenditure Secretary Girish Chandra Murmu, Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey, DIPAM Secretary Atanu Chakraborty, and Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar

This year, it is not the traditional leather, from which the word Budget originated. FM Sitharaman instead replaces Budget briefcase with four-fold red cloth. Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian on FM Nirmala Sitharaman keeping budget documents in four fold red cloth instead of a briefcase said, it is in Indian tradition. It symbolizes our departure from slavery of Western thought. It is not a budget but a 'bahi khata' (ledger)