MP govt first to change financial year to January-December

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi backed shifting of fiscal year, the Madhya Pradesh Government on Tuesday changed its financial year to January-December from April-March.

The new budget for the state would be presented in December from now on.

In an official statement on the PM's closing remarks at Niti Aayog's governing council meeting on Sunday, Modi batted for a shift to a January-December fiscal year from current April to March, which was adopted in 1867.

Modi did not set a deadline for the transition, but urged the states to take the initiative.

Last year, a government-appointed committee headed by former chief



economic adviser Shankar Acharya had recommended the transition in the accounting period.

The recommendation was made after studying the merits, feasibility and desirability of changing the financial year.

The committee stated that the move would align the fiscal with the monsoon cycle and the country's agricultural harvests.

It will, however, take quite some time for such a transition to be completed as the nation has become used to March-April financial year which is a 150-year-old practice. Also, Parliament sessions will have to be reworked, along with changes in data collection and working of state governments.