Click to play videoNew Delhi: Making a budget and accommodating various interests is a mammoth exercise - it began in November and it's put together by a core team of 8 people who work along with the finance minister.
The men and women behind the budget:
Sushma Nath - Finance secretary
Kaushik Basu - chief economic advisor
R Gopalan - secretary to Department of Economic Affairs
Sunil Mitra - Revenue secretary
Sumit Bose - Disinvestment secretary
Sudhir Chandra - Chairman of central board of direct taxes
Sumit Dutt Majumder - Chairman of central board of excise and customs
Shashi Kant Sharma - Secretary, Department of Financial Services
and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
It all begins in the month of November when the budget team gets together to set targets. They assess receipts and expenditure data from 28 states and defence services.
But tax research for next year's budget had begun almost as soon as budget 2010 was passed. The tax research units decide where to impose taxes and where to reduce them.
The budget team continues to meet officials till mid January. During this period the finance minister is literally the guru, with Industry chambers, states and union ministries frantically lobbying to get their wish lists' fulfilled. From January onwards officials start giving the final touches to the budget document which is then taken to the Prime Minister for his final nod.
And the most intriguing bit - from the 21st to 28th all officials involved in printing the document go into the basement of the north block and emerge only after the speech is delivered. Yes, this mean's virtual house arrest.
The budget documents are ready by 26th and even the cabinet only gets a gist of what the budget is like ten minutes before the parliament meets on budget day.
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