Nirmala Sitharaman breaks the stereotypes, carries a 'bahi-khata' discarding the briefcase

New Delhi: Going against the conventions of presenting the budget in a briefcase, the Finance Minister, on Friday morning, has broken the stereotypes by coming to present the budget in a 'bahi-khata' in the parliament. The FM brought the Budget wrapped in a four-fold red cloth called a 'bahi-khata' (ledger).

Chief Economic Advisor, Krishnamurthy Subramanian, explained the shift from the briefcase to the red-cloth by saying, “It is in Indian tradition. It symbolizes our departure from slavery of Western thought. It is not a budget but a 'bahi-khata’ (ledger).”

The Union Finance Minister presents the first budget of the Narendra Modi led NDA government. The budget reports being presented by the minister today play a greater significance at a time when India’s economic growth has been experiencing a sharp slowdown.

Amid the expectations from the budget 2019, it is expected that the Central government will provide tax exemptions to millions of individual taxpayers along with also boosting employment. The taxpayers are also hoping for a push of tax reforms. Thus, various sectors of the economy in the Union Budget 2019-20 are expected to be touched and reformed with the introduction of the Union budget.

The live updates of the budget presented by Nirmala Sitharaman that has started being presented today at 11 am, is hoped to touch both domestic and foreign investors. However, various interest groups like farmers and the anxious middle-class too are expecting to get a certain relief and reformation in their economic issues.

This Union Budget, which is the first budget of the Modi government’s second term, is also going to curve the path of India's economy for the forthcoming five years. The budget might show a boost in the spending at the cost of short-term slippage in fiscal deficit targets.

Being the maiden budget for Sitharaman, who also happens to be the second woman finance minister after Indira Gandhi, the unveiling of the budget will also highlight Sitharaman’s far-sightedness towards boosting India’s economy. Sitharaman, starting her budget speech at 11 in the morning on Friday, began with an address to the speaker of Lok Sabha. As it generally takes, the duration of the presentation will range from 90-120 minutes.

Before this, the pre-Budget Economic Survey was tabled by the finance minister in Parliament on Thursday that projected the state of the economy in the country and outlined its challenges.

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