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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)
Bharat Rane
Bharat Rane 9 years 10 months ago
It is surprises to me that India the biggest democracy country has every year financial year. I am very thankful to Hon. Prime Minister Shri Narendara ji Modi and the government for they invite suggestion from the people. I want to share some suggestions to the government for the new financial. Government should be present their budget only 2 times in the five years term. One is after forming the government and second before the end of five years term. Detail in attached file.
mygov_14729791411372193.pdf
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WAMAN DAMLE
WAMAN DAMLE 9 years 10 months ago
The financial year should be the same as the calendar year from 1st January to 31st December. At present, in Income tax a lot of confusion is created by the two terms used - finacial year (F.Y.) and assessment year (A.Y.). BY adopting calendar year as the F.Y., this confusion will be removed. In India, the main harvesting season is from June to Sept. and the agricultural results are known by Sept.. Thus a better can be done for the budget based on the result of the main crop season.
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AWADH GIRI
AWADH GIRI 9 years 10 months ago
A change in the FY from 01 April to 31 March may reveal many a deep set flaws and manipulative practices that may have taken roots. Perhaps a change is required to experience the alternative. The changed year should not coincide with the English calender year because of long holidays and holiday mood in December globally. Ideally the FY should coincide with Diwali or miidle of English Calender year ie 01 August.
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A. Bandyopadhyay
A. Bandyopadhyay 9 years 10 months ago
Calendar year and financial should coincide. One of the strongest reasons is that by December end the status of rural economy as reflected by agricultural output from the previous year will be fairly known and, the and the status of the major oil seeds, pulses and wheat can be fairly estimated by December. The status of market of the mass consumer based industries will also be fairly known at the end of the major festive seasons.
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Jitendra Mittal
Jitendra Mittal 9 years 10 months ago
Cont.. The banks and other financial institutions should credit the due interest (in one year) in the same financial year so that proper accounting may be done. People should be encouraged to possess PAN Card and data for all account holders who have FDs and sizable bank balance in savings bank account should be supplied to develop Form 28AS.
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Jitendra Mittal
Jitendra Mittal 9 years 10 months ago
Cont... During my stay in Nigeria, the FY was changed to Jan-Dec. and i was a quick process by making allowable deductions on pro-rata basis. In India also, similar modalities may be worked out.
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Jitendra Mittal
Jitendra Mittal 9 years 10 months ago
I say without reservation that the financial year in India be hanged from January to December which will be beneficial to the Government and the public at large. From income tax point of view, the data contained in form 26AS is not complete. It should be mandatory to all the stakeholders to provide all the data in terms of TDS and all payments made to an individual or an entity so that there is no confusion and a great leap for processing of income tax returns.
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JAGDISH PATHAK
JAGDISH PATHAK 9 years 10 months ago
In respect to improvement in custom processes, I want to suggest that, The procedure of release of goods should be simplified, further, there should be also watch on tax / duty evasion or illegal material brought in port, the advance technology should be used to investigate such evasion and illegal activities, further, capacity of storage should be increased, so that, the goods can be stored safely , when the release of goods procedure are under progress, it should be quick procedure,best wishes
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