An avoidable change

There is little to gain from resetting the fiscal year

The government appears determined on going ahead with a change in the fiscal year. On Friday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley informed the Lok Sabha that the government was considering shifting the fiscal year to January-December. The prime minister has been a keen votary of such a change for a while now. In April, after the National Democratic Alliance government advanced the presentation of the Union Budget to the beginning of February, Mr Modi, during a NITI Aayog meeting, urged states to come on board. Since then, at least three states, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, have put their hands