The Finance Ministry has started preparing the union budget for fiscal 2011-12, which would be the last budget under the current income tax regime as the direct tax code will come into effect from April 2012.
 
On the September 15, the finance ministry started the budget preparation process by sending out a budget circular to all government depts. The finance ministry will now initiate three budget meetings with other government departments in October and November. With the direct taxes code introduced in the Lok Sabha, this will be the last budget under the present income tax regime.

While the budgetary discussions and proposals would be off-bound for public view the finance ministry today released a manual on budget related procedures. The finance ministry hopes that this will foster greater transparency and better understanding about procedures and systems related to the making of union budget.

Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee said, "Budget is shrouded with mystery. Many of the functions and activities related to budget are not placed in any single document.

Article 112 of the constitution which deals with the budget is usually phrased as annual financial statement. Some amount of secrecy is needed, leads to speculation.
 
The budget manual will now be sent to all government deptarments and ministries. Sources say that after making the budget related procedures public, the finance ministry would try to simplify the budget related documents to make them more user friendly.