Union Budget 2019: How is the budget kept secret by the Finance Ministry? Find out before Nirmala Sitharaman's first budget speech

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present Modi 2.0 government's first budget on July 5. Union Minister has been busy with her team to deliver today's budget making sure it assus current ills in fiscal situation as well as meet expectations delivering PM Narendra Modi's vision.

To prepare budget, ministry works from basement in rth Block of government Secretariat on Raisina Hill. work begins with tritional of serving halwa to staff of Finance Ministry. Soon after, officers tasked with printing of budget are locked up in basement.

documents of  budget used to be printed inside Rashtrapati Bhavan till 1950 but following a leak it was moved to a government assigned venue on Minto Ro. It was changed again 1980 after which rth Block became designated area for printing budget document.

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Blue Sheet

A blue piece of paper contains important figures which forms basis of budget document. It is guarded with utmost secrecy and it is inaccessible even to Union Finance Minister. Joint Secretary (budget) has custody of blue sheet. It is drafted a few weeks ahe of day of presentation of Budget. 

Quarantine Period

Finance Minister Sitharaman and her team comprising of 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 have been at work and been quarantined since June 3. team will also be assisted by MoS Finance Anurag Thakur and  Chief Ecomic visor Krishnamurthy Subramanian. Officials from Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) as well as legal experts are also involved in process.  All officials involved in its preparation will stay put in ministry till day of Budget presentation .

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visitors are allowed. Even media is kept out. re are sweeping devices installed in building. officials involved in budget are t allowed to even access private emails. private emails are blocked on most systems in ministry. Mobile phones are disallowed inside. Even FInance Ministry is t allowed to use mobile phone.  ministry uses landline, but outgoing calls cant be done using m.

re is tight security at exit and entry points of ministry which will continue till quarantine period is over. officials of Intelligence Bureau with help of Delhi Police monitor movements near rth Block and near entrance areas of offices of those involved in budget-making process. 

Since officials who number close to a hundred are locked within premises of ministry, a medical team is stationed inside in case of emergencies during quarantne period.