Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will on February 1 present her ninth straight Budget, which is expected to unveil measures to sustain growth momentum, maintain fiscal discipline, and contain reforms that could buffer the economy from global trade frictions, including US tariffs. The presentation of the Budget for April 2026 to March 2027 fiscal (2026-27) will be on Sunday, a first in independent India's history.
Sitharaman's sweeping income tax and GST cuts, together with spending on infrastructure and the RBI's interest rate reductions, have so far helped the Indian economy withstand the punitive 50 per cent tariff US President Donald Trump has imposed on Indian goods. But now, she has to come up with measures to sustain the momentum.
From Bahi Khata and briefcase to tablet, the presentation of the Union Budget has undergone a massive transformation over these years. Conventionally, finance ministers earlier were photographed carrying a briefcase to the Parliament for presenting Budget papers. However, in 2019, Sitharaman broke that tradition and introduced a ‘bahi khata,’ a traditional Indian accounting ledger, replacing the colonial-era briefcase. In 2021, she gave way to modern technology by presenting the Budget on a made-in-India tablet, a paperless format. Here, take a look at how the budget papers evolved over the years.
Briefcase:
India’s first finance minister RK Shankmukham Chetty presented the Budget papers in a briefcase to present the Budget. This Budget briefcase was a copy of the ‘Gladstone Box’, named after British Chancellor of the Exchequer William Ewart Gladstone. This trend of carrying budget papers in a briefcase continued for a few years and many finance ministers used different briefcases during their tenures.
Bahi Khata:
In an effort to give an Indian touch to the Budget, Nirmala Sitharaman for the first time carried a right-red ‘bahi khata’ in 2019, instead of the traditional briefcase. She had talked about this new change and said she thought it was better to move out from British handhold. Earlier, the ‘bahi khata’ was used in India for decades by business owners and households to maintain their accounts.
Tablet:
With the advancement of technology, FM Sitharaman wanted to go paperless in 2021 and presented the Budget in tablet which was made in India. She carried the tablet to the Parliament wrapped in a red bahi khata-style pouch in 2021. Again this time, Sitharaman is expected to present the Budget for financial year 2025-26 on February 1 with the new tablet.
