Madhya Pradesh switches to January-December fiscal pattern

With the Madhya Pradesh government on Tuesday deciding to part ways with the conventional April-March financial year pattern to adopt the January-December period as the new fiscal, it became the first state to break away from the age-old tradition.

At a high-level meeting, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced that the next budget session would begin from January, according to an official press release.

The change will come into effect from the next year, as the state government intends to complete all budgetary proceedings for this year by the close of 2017.

The Chief Minister also issued instructions to clearly chalk out the programmes to be completed in quarterly, half-yearly and annual fashion. He asked all government departments to prepare a road map for the next two years.

Chouhan also instructed that from the next Cabinet meeting, every government department should come up with a road map for execution of their programmes. "Party's election manifesto, vision document, other announcements by the party and the budgetary allocation should be kept in mind while preparing the road map," a press release quoted him as saying.

The Chief Minister advised the officials that in case two or more departments were involved with the same issue, they should discuss it among themselves. "Too much of communication leads to avoidable, unnecessary delays," he said.

--IANS

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