Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman with Ministers of State Pankaj Chaudhary and Bhagwat Karad and her team of officials a day before presentation of the Interim Budget 2024, at her North Block office in New Delhi, Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024.
Credit: PTI Photo
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to present the Union Budget 2024 at the Parliament on Tuesday. While its presentation is a matter of a few minutes, the drafting of the Budget is a long and complicated process.
Although the exercise to make the Budget generally begins six months before the presentation, the process of compilation and printing of the document starts with the 'halwa' ceremony. It is that period when the team responsible for the making of the Budget locks itself inside the North Block. During this period, the team is allowed to have very limited communication with the outside world, even with their families.
While the Finance Minister presents the Union Budget with a speech at the Parliament, a team of trusted and high-ranking officials is behind the making of the financial document.
Below is the team that made Union Budget 2024, according to Money Control.
Finance Secretary TV Somanathan
Hailing from Tamil Nadu, Somanathan had served as an Additional Secretary at the PMO before being a part of the Finance Ministry. He is believed to be very close to PM Modi.
Hari Ranjan Rao
A 1994-batch IAS officer, Rao is responsible for the functioning of technology and governance sections of the PMO. He had earlier served as the Secretary to former Madhya Pradesh CM, Shivraj Singh Chouhan. He had also worked in the Department of Telecommunications.
Principal Secretary to the PM, PK Mishra
He is the key person to take care of all important policy matters of the government.
Arvind Shrivastava
A 1994-batch IAS officer from Karnataka, Shrivastava is the Finance and Economy officer in the PMO. He looks after the functioning of the ministries of finance and corporate affairs.
Punya Salila Srivastava
A 1993-batch IAS officer, she takes care of the social and welfare sections of the government. She had served in the Home Ministry before joining the PMO.
Other key members
Other key members of the team include Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra, Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs Ajay Seth, Secretary of Department of Investment and Public Asset Management Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretary of Department of Financial Services Vivek Joshi, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran, Additional Secretary to the PM Atish Chandra.