As per established tradition, the finance minister met the President at the Rashtrapati Bhavan before heading to Parliament.

Sitharaman posed with her Budget team in front of her office at Kartavya Bhavan. Wearing a magenta-coloured Tamil Nadu`s Kanchivaram saree, she was holding a tablet in a red pouch with the national emblem, along with the Minister of State and all six secretaries in her ministry.

"Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt Nirmala Sitharaman, along with Minister of State for Finance Shri Pankaj Chaudhary and senior officials of the Ministry of Finance, called on President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan before presenting the Union Budget. The President extended her best wishes to the Union Finance Minister and her team for the presentation of Budget," President of India office said in a post on X.

President Murmu offered `dahi-chini` (curd-sugar), considered auspicious, to Sitharaman before she left for Parliament to present the Union Budget.

Following the meeting, she headed for a Cabinet meeting that will formally approve the Budget for 2026-27.