Paperless Budget: Fin Min Launches Smartphone Application For Sharing All Union Budget Documents

With the Government having decided to not physically print any of the documents containing income and expenditure statement of the Union government along with the finance bill for the new financial year, Union Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman yesterday (23 January) unveiled the "Union Budget Mobile App" for hassle-free access of the budget by the Parliamentarians, reports Livemint.

The smartphone application was launched by Sitharaman during the customary Halwa ceremony which otherwise used to mark the beginning of the printing exercise of the budget documents. It has been developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) under the guidance of the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA).

This would mark the first instance since the presentation of independent India's first budget on November 26, 1947, that the budget documents will not be printed and distributed among the members of the two houses of the Parliament.

The dedicated application launched yesterday would provide complete access to 14 Union Budget documents, including the Annual Financial Statement, Demand for Grants (DG), Finance Bill et cetera as prescribed by the Constitution. These will be available on the application after the completion of the budget speech by Sitharaman on 1 February.