New Delhi: The finance ministry informed Lok Sabha on Friday in a written response to a question that the government was considering syncing the April-March financial year to the calendar year. It, however, did not specify from when this might happen.

In response to a question from Member of Parliament Pankaj Choudhary, the ministry said, “The matter of changing financial year is under consideration of the government. It has been examined recently by a committee constituted under the chairmanship of Shankar Acharya. The report of the committee has been received."

The statement added that the question of whether the government proposed to present its annual budget during November-December did not arise at this stage.

A government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the issue of shifting to a January-December financial year was under consideration, but it was unlikely that it would be implemented from next year considering the preparations needed for it.

“Changing the government’s IT systems from April-March to January-December and reorganising data is a huge task and it needs time. However, if a decision is taken to implement it from next year, we, certainly will do everything to accomplish it. It would mean processing data manually till the IT system is ready," said the official.

Madhya Pradesh has already announced its intention to move to a January-December financial year.

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