BHOPAL: In a first for the country, Madhya Pradesh (MP) on Tuesday became the first State to adopt January to December as its fiscal year. MP shelved the decade-old practice of observing it from April to March, which has been followed since the time of the British Raj from 1867.
The earlier window was adopted to coincide with the British financial year. The new decision was taken at the State cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
This comes a few days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi backed the idea of a January-December fiscal year at the governing council meeting of the Niti Ayog in Delhi on April 23.
The cabinet decision was made public by the minister for public relations and government's official spokesperson, Dr Narottam Mishra. He said it would be implemented by presentation of the annual State budget in December, 2017, instead of February-March, 2018.
"Instead of the past practice of budget being presented in March next year, the government will present the budget in December this year only," said Mishra.
India has followed the April-March financial year since 1867 from the time of the British Raj. It was adopted to coincide with the British financial year. Prior to that, India’s financial year was May-April.
The cabinet also cleared the proposal to declare the Narmada river as a living and legal entity, a resolution on which will be passed at the day-long special session of the State Assembly on Wednesday.
Mishra further said all principal secretaries of departments and the chief secretary have been directed by the State government to prepare a two year roadmap for their departments.
The roadmap’s execution will be monitored quarterly by the minister in charge of every department, and department’s will take a turn to present it every Tuesday.
The government also decided to review all laws which have lost significance in the present era and pave the passage for their replacement with more relevant, newer laws, said Mishra.
"Also every letterhead, diary, poster, banner and State government advertisement will compulsorily bear the photograph of BJP ideologue Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya on his birth centenary year," said Subodh Mishra.