Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday conducted the customary ‘halwa’ ceremony held at the Finance Ministry in the national capital. This ceremony was conducted to mark the beginning of printing of documents relating to Union Budget 2019-20. Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur along with Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg, Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar, Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey and Expenditure Secretary GC Murmu also participated in the ceremony. ‘Halwa ceremony’ is an old tradition in which ‘halwa’ is prepared in a large ‘kadai’ and later is being distributed among the Ministry officials. It marks the commencement process of printing documents for the upcoming budget. The budget will be presented by Sitharaman on July 05 in Parliament. This would be her first Budget as the Finance Minister.