Budget 2021-22:Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday will present a budget that, for the first time since Independence of India, is paperless. As Sitharaman reaches the Finance Ministry, she is seen with a tablet, ditching the traditional ‘bahi khata,’ which has been symbolic for budget presentation under BJP-led central government. Dressed in red and cream-saree, Sitharaman carried a tab in red coloured cover with a national emblem on it. It is to note that the government had earlier decided to go digital with the budget presentation on the back of the Coronavirus outbreak.
Every year, it takes as many as 100 employees in the ministry to print the Union Budget. The process is 15-day long and employees stay together till the time papers are printed, sealed and delivered. As the COVID-19 transmission cases have been on a rise, the government decided to avoid this budget exercise and went for the soft copies instead. Soft copies for all papers will be provided to Parliament members.
Meanwhile, the government has also introduced a dedicated application- Union Budget Mobile App for users to access budget related information and documents. The application is available for Android and iOS smartphones where all the documents presented within the parliament will be available in a hassle-free manner. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman earlier in January had started the compilation of Budget documents. It is to note that the mobile application will provide complete access to 14 Union Budget documents. These documents will be inclusive of the Annual Financial Statement (commonly known as Budget), Finance Bill, Demand for Grants (DG) along with others.
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The Union Budget Mobile App is said to have a user-friendly interface along with embedded features that will allow users to download, search, print, bidirectional scrolling, zoom in or out documents, table of contents as well as external links.