Industry wary of change in accounting year

Industry representatives told committee that they were already overburdened by recent reforms including GST

Industry players have expressed reservations to a proposal to change the accounting year from April-March to January-December. A central government-appointed committee held meetings with industry participants, which included representatives from corporate India, banks, rating agencies and consultancy firms, last week to gather feedback on the issue. The meeting was also attended by few a officials of the Securities and Exchange Board of India and Reserve Bank of India.

According to sources, most industry representatives told the committee that they were already overburdened by the recent reforms including the goods and services tax, demonetisation and changing of accounting standards to Ind-AS. Hence, they would not be in a position to adopt any such changes over the next few years.

“The unanimous feedback gone to the committee is that the proposal to change the financial year should be pushed back by a few years. The industry players are coping up with recent changes such as GST and shift to Ind-AS accounting practice. Another major change would put a lot of load on the system,” said a source.