New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to present Budget 2021 shortly. Sitharaman, this year, has decided to present and read out the Budget at the Parliament through a tab instead of the traditional bahi khata.
Dressed in a red and cream colour saree, accompanied by MoS Anurag Thakur and other officials from her ministry at North Block, the Finance Minister was seen carrying a tablet kept inside a red coloured cover with a golden coloured national emblem embossed on it.
For the unversed, Finance Ministry had decided to go paperless this year and not to print the budget documents amid the pandemic.
This is a historic move as it will be for the first time in the history of independent India that the budget papers will not be printed.
Sitharaman reached the Parliament where she is scheduled to present Union budget 2021-22.
Earlier today, Sitharaman and her team met President Ram Nath Kovind before presenting her third budget. She was accompanied by her deputy Anurag Thakur and other officials of the Finance Ministry.
The Budget speech will begin at around 11 am today with Sitharaman beginning it with an address to the speaker of Lok Sabha. Usually, the duration of the presentation ranges from 90 to 120 minutes.
Sitharaman had tabled the Economic Survey in Parliament on Friday.
The Indian economy can contract by 7.7 per cent in the current financial year ending on March 31 and the growth could be 11 per cent in the next financial year, according to the survey.
(With inputs from ANI)
