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Desirability and Feasibility of Changing the Financial Year

Desirability and Feasibility of Changing the Financial Year
Start Date :
Aug 24, 2016
Last Date :
Oct 01, 2016
00:00 AM IST (GMT +5.30 Hrs)
Submission Closed

The Government of India has appointed a Committee chaired by Dr. Shankar Acharya, former chief economic adviser, to examine the desirability and feasibility of having a ‘new ...

The Government of India has appointed a Committee chaired by Dr. Shankar Acharya, former chief economic adviser, to examine the desirability and feasibility of having a ‘new financial year’. Other distinguished members of the Committee are Shri K M Chandrasekhar, former Cabinet Secretary, Shri PV Rajaraman, former Principal Finance Secretary, Tamil Nadu and Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Senior Fellow Centre for Policy Research.

Presently, the financial year followed by governments in India runs from 1st April to the following 31st March.

This issue was last examined by the L K Jha Committee in 1985, whose recommendation to move to a financial year of January 1- December 31 (for Central and State Governments) was then not accepted by the then Government.

There are many arguments for and against the change in financial year which revolve around issues of budget and cash management by government, seasonality of government revenues and expenditure, impact of Monsoon on budget forecasting, working season, timelines involved in the legislative cycle of passage of Budget by the Parliament, international comparability of fiscal statistics, aligning government’s financial year with year for tax assessment and corporate accounting purposes. Some arguments are less on the intrinsic merit or demerit of the change but rather on the timing of the change when the change coincides with other developments impacting businesses.

This Discussion Forum seeks to invite inputs from everyone interested in this issue.

We welcome your comments, suggestions, information and documents on the Committee’s Terms of Reference and issues related to it. Please provide these latest by 30th September, 2016.

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Showing 816 Submission(s)
NIRMAL KUMAR GANGWAL
NIRMAL KUMAR GANGWAL 9 years 7 months ago
Change Financial year to calendar year not only end the colonial practice adopted without any rational in indian context, but shall also remove all confusions about mixing two different calendar years. Calendar year will also help us in removing confusing concept of assessment year and previous year used in taxation.
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Anuj Kumar
Anuj Kumar 9 years 7 months ago
In an age of globalisation, I submit that it will help if our macro and company statistics / financials are comparable with those of other countries. Most of the world follows a 1 January - 31 December calendar for reporting these statistics and financials. Often, in these 'comparables' tables, widely used for investment analysis, India becomes difficult to analyse since the year end is different. I submit that we change our fiscal year to coincide with the calendar year 1 Jan to 31 Dec.
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Ashal Jauhari
Ashal Jauhari 9 years 7 months ago
The present Financial Year system was originally given to us by Britishers. Time has come to move on and implement, what's in our interest. In line with global practices, I w'd prefer a calendar year based Financial year. Easy to understand, easy to implement. Along with the change in dates for financial year, I w'd also suggest that the concept of having Assessment Year should also be abolished. Just Plain vanilla Financial Year for all our taxation related issues,nothing else. Thanks
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JAGDISH PATHAK
JAGDISH PATHAK 9 years 7 months ago
In respect to financial year, I want to suggest that, Financial year should be started from 1st January and ending on 31st December, further, I want to suggest that, the Assessment year, Previous year, accounting year etc. defination given in various act e.i. Income tax etc.. should also be changed, Only return & Financial statments should be prepared according to financial year, it will create more confusion, further, all types of accounts and financial analysis should be common for FY,Thanks
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Dr Shashi Kant Sharan
Dr Shashi Kant Sharan 9 years 7 months ago
Present financial year is linked with agricultural system of India. This should be kept in mind before changing it to western calendar system.
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Amit Srivastava
Amit Srivastava 9 years 7 months ago
Financial year should be corresponding to the Calendar Year,that means Financial year should be 1st January to 31st December but the budget should be announced and passed in September/October in advance itself such that finances are made available from 01 January onward.
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Muthuselvam D
Muthuselvam D 9 years 7 months ago
Respected sir, Financial year starts June1 ends May 31 it is good one. Because we are live in climate based cultural country . June 1 starts rain season in india . this rain give happy for farmers Our National give more importance for agriculture .we are proud to say our country is a agriculture country. May 31 we know hot summer end .our Peoples troubles end So our new financial year starts june 1 and end may 31 Starting happy and end troubles June 1 to may 31 is best
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Rahul Wagh
Rahul Wagh 9 years 7 months ago
From middle class. Want to save money when purchase glossary & try out other options.But today's multiple options in market its difficult to compare same two products which is expensive.For me quality is not issue but which is expensive.Ex.toothpaste: one brand 80gm in Rs57&other 100gm in Rs67.If comapre by prize then Rs57 is cheap but its not.It cost 0.71paise\1gm,other cost 0.67paise\1gm With MRP if how much prize 1gm\1ml cost for goods printed,will help to compare products & save money :)
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Aspi Cawasji
Aspi Cawasji 9 years 7 months ago
I think the financial year for India should continue in the cycle from April to March every year, but the budget should be announced and passed in January itself such that finances are made available from 01 Apr onwards. Vote on account should be abolished as the budget would have been passed by the parliament before commencement of the financial year.
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