Telangana fiscal may start on January 1

Hyderabad: The TRS government is seriously contemplating following the Madhya Pradesh model of presenting the annual Budget from calendar year to calendar year — January 1 to December 31, instead of the age-old format of April 1 to March 31.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who plans to follow the Centre’s thought process, asked finance minister Etala Rajender and senior finance department officials to visit Madhya Pradesh where such Budget timetable is being implemented.

“KCR has said that in tune with the Centre’s thought process and in accordance with its proposed policy, the state government plans to introduce the Budget from the calendar year to calendar year (January 1 to December 31),” a senior official said.

The Chief Minister discussed the issue with the finance department and other higher officials.

Madhya Pradesh had on May 2 become the first state in the country to announce a change in its financial year to the January-December cycle in place of April-March.

The decision would be implemented from January 1, 2018. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had pitched for shifting the fiscal year to January-December during NITI-Aayog governing council meeting in New Delhi recently.

Similarly, in a radical departure, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented his fourth Budget on February 1 advancing the Budget date by a month by the BJP-led NDA government. The Budget also underwent a change, bidding adieu to plan and non-plan expenditure categories, merging of railway budget.