To keep up with the agricultural production cycle, the government has initiated its efforts to shift the financial year from April to January. As per the sources the initial work has begun. Roll out of the GST from July 1 also reflects the government's move in the same direction, as July marks the commencement of the second half of the calendar year. Also know which nations follow april to march as financial year
The idea of January-December financial year was earlier supported by Narendra Modi during the meet at the the Governing Council of NITI Aayog. Last year the government arranged a high-level committee for studying the feasibility study of bringing about a shift in financial year from April to January 1.The committee then submitted its report in December providing a reason for the change, its effect on enterprises, taxation as a whole, statistics, data collection together with its impact on various agricultural crop periods.
To back the idea of financial year from January 1, Modi said that agricultural income is highly important in India and budgets needs to be prepared just after the agriculture income for a given year is realized.
The state governments have been asked to begin their efforts in this shift in financial year. Madhya Pradesh is the first state to adopt a shift in its budget cycle from April-March period to January- December.