FM Nirmala Sitharaman takes digital tablet in ‘bahi-khata’ to present paperless Union Budget 2025

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, breaking away from the colonial tradition of carrying a Budget briefcase in July 2019, once again opted for a traditional for a digital tablet enclosed in a traditional 'bahi-khata' style pouch on Saturday, February 1, to present the Union Budget 2025.

Nirmala Sitharaman, India's first full-time woman finance minister, will present her eighth consecutive Union Budget.

Follow Live Updates on Budget 2025

After breaking the tradition, she continued the custom of carrying her speech and other Budget documents in the digital tablet the following year, and in the pandemic-affected 2021.

Also Read | Budget 2024: What is a bahi-khata? Why did Sitharaman replace briefcase?

Draped in an off-white handloom silk saree with fish-themed embroidery and golden border, the finance minister posed for the traditional 'briefcase' photo outside her North Block office, accompanied by her team of officials, before heading to meet President Droupadi Murmu.

Watch the video:

With the tablet securely placed inside a red cover featuring a golden national emblem, her next stop was Parliament, after her meeting with President Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Sitharaman's Budget for the fiscal year starting April 2025 (FY2025-26) marks the 14th consecutive Budget under the Narendra Modi government since 2014, including two interim Budgets presented ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 and 2024.

She was appointed as the finance minister when Modi swept to power again in the 2019 election and presented her maiden Budget on July 5, 2019. Sitharaman used a red cloth folder enclosed with a string and emblazoned with the national emblem to carry the Budget documents.

Earlier, finance ministers in different governments, including her predecessors in the Modi government - Arun Jaitley and Piyush Goyal- used the standard Budget briefcase.

Sitharaman broke long-standing colonial tradition

Before Sitharaman, a long-standing colonial tradition in connection with the Budget presentation was broken during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government when the then finance minister Yashwant Sinha presented the Budget at 11am rather than at the traditional time of 5pm.

Since then, all the governments have been presenting the Budget at 11am.

The tradition of carrying the Budget briefcase was a British legacy. The word 'Budget' originates from the French word 'bougette', which means leather briefcase.

The "budget case" tradition started in the 18th century when the Chancellor of the Exchequer or Britain's budget chief was asked to 'open the budget' while presenting his annual statement.

In 1860, the then British budget chief William E Gladstone carried his papers in a red suitcase with the Queen's monogram in gold. Budget briefcase came into being because Gladstone's speeches were extraordinarily long, and he needed a briefcase to carry his speech papers.

However, in India, different finance ministers carried different briefcases in red, black, tan or brown colours.

India's first finance minister RK Shanmukham Chetty carried a leather portfolio to present the first Budget in 1947. TT Krishnamachari, in the 1950s, carried something that looked like a file bag. Jawaharlal Nehru carried a black briefcase.

As the finance minister, Manmohan Singh, who delivered the iconic 1991 economic liberalisation proposals, carried a black bag. Pranab Mukherjee, as prime minister Manmohan Singh's finance minister, used a red briefcase similar to the Gladstone case of Britain.

Piyush Goyal, who presented the interim Budget in February 2019, was the last finance minister to have carried a briefcase. He carried a red one to Parliament.

On Budget day, the finance minister of India poses with the Budget bag outside Parliament. In Britain, the Chancellor of the Exchequer poses with his suitcase in front of 11 Downing Street before the Budget speech.

Soon after presenting her maiden Budget in 2019, Sitharaman had said that the bahi-khata was a break from the colonial legacy.

"Why did I not use a leather bag to carry budget documents? I thought it is high time we move on from the British hangover, to do something on our own. And well, easier for me to carry too," she had said.

However, one of her predecessors, P Chidambaram of the Congress, had scoffed at her choice in that year. "A Congress finance minister in future will bring an iPad," the former finance minister had said when asked to comment on the bahi-khata.

And Sitharaman did just that twice this year in 2021, 2022, and 2023.

(With inputs from PTI)