NEW DELHI, July 21 (Xinhua) -- The Indian government Friday said it is considering changing the financial year format to calendar year, that is from January to December, as against the current April-to-March cycle.
"The matter of changing the financial year is under consideration of the government," Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in the Parliament.
"The matter has been examined recently by a committee constituted by the government under the chairmanship of former Chief Economic Adviser Shankar Acharya. The report of the committee has been received," the minister added.
In May, India's central state of Madhya Pradesh became the first in the country to change the fiscal year to January-to-December cycle, soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi pitched for the change of the financial year format at a meeting of NITI Aayog, the government's think-tank.
At the meeting, Modi said: "Because of poor time management, many good initiatives and schemes had failed to deliver the anticipated results. There is a need to develop robust arrangements that could function amidst diversity."
The April-to-March financial year format has been existing in India since 1867.
