The Narendra Modi government on Wednesday advanced the Union Budget and appointed a new committee chaired by former Chief Economic Advisor Shankar Acharya to examine the feasibility of having a ‘new financial year’ to coincide with the calendar year.
Other members of the panel are former cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar; former principal finance secretary (Tamil Nadu) P V Rajaraman and Senior Fellow at Centre for Policy Research Rajiv Kumar.
The committee has to submit its report by December 31 after examining the merits and demerits of various dates for the commencement of the financial year, including the current date of April 1, taking into account past studies.
While the country’s financial year currently runs from April 1 to March 31, it’s been argued that shifting it to a calendar year -- January 1 to December 31 -- is a ‘better option’.
This issue was last examined by the L K Jha Committee in 1985, but its recommendation to move to a financial year of January 1- December 31 (for central and state governments), did not find many takers then.
A Niti Aayog panel headed by member Bibek Debroy had recently indicated its inclination towards a merger of the financial year with the calendar year.
