Is India set to get a new financial year cycle? Govt sets up panel

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: In a move that could change many of our financial activities including filing of Income Tax, business transactions etc, the government is contemplating to change the financial year calendar.

The Finance Ministry has tweeted:

Govt has constituted a Committee headed by Dr.Shankar Acharya,former CEA to examine desirability& feasibility of having a new financial year — Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) July 6, 2016

The panel will be headed by former Chief Economic Adviser to the Finance Ministry Shankar Acharya. It will also have other members including Cabinet Secretary KM Chandrasekhar, former Finance Secretary to Tamil Nadu PV Rajaraman, and Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research Rajiv Kumar.

As of now, nothing concrete can be said but the government has formed a panel to look into the modalities of shifting the financial calendar year base.

The Finance Ministry further tweeted:

Committee will examine the merits & demerits of various dates for commencement of Financial Year including existing date (April to March). — Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) July 6, 2016

The Shankar Acharya Panel will deliberate on issues like the onset of monsoon, statistics and data collection, the likely impact of change in calendar year in various businesses etc.

If all goes well, the government might come up with the new fiscal running between January 1 and December 31.

The Finance Ministry tweet said:

The Committee has been given time till 31st December, 2016 to submit its Report taking into account the various relevant factors. — Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) July 6, 2016

India's follows the British financial calendar year pattern that runs between April 1 and March 31. While the US financial year begins from October 1, other countries like Japan, South Africa, New Zealand and Hong Kong follow the April 1- March 31 fiscal.