The Madhya Pradesh government on Tuesday changed its Budget cycle to January-December from the existing April to March fiscal cycle, reported ANI. The Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led Cabinet will present its next Budget in December 2017.
The move comes a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had pitched for a fiscal year coinciding with the calendar year. Speaking at Niti Aayog’s governing council meeting on April 24, the prime minister had suggested that the Budget should be prepared immediately after the receipt of agricultural incomes for the year. He had asked states to take the initiative to make this shift.
In 2016, Modi had set up a committee to look into the matter. A panel headed by former economic adviser Shankar Acharya had even submitted its report to the government. One of the major arguments advocating this shift is that the government usually would have already made its financial plans and had to redo them when additional money was required to address the effects of deficit monsoons.
In 1867, India had adopted the April to March financial year to coincide with the British financial year. Before that, India’s fiscal year was from May to April.
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