The Centre may end the 150-year-old tradition by shifting the financial year to January instead of April in 2018. Owing to the shift plans, the high-level government sources informed the Press Trust of India that the next budget might be declared in November 2017.

After Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about the change, the government is working on shifting the financial year as per the calendar. For conducting the budgetary exercise by the year end, the budget session has to be conducted before December. As the budgetary exercise takes about two months, the tentative schedule of the budget session is roughly around the first week of November.

The shift was necessary for proper utilization of the working session. The shift will facilitate better data collection and analysis on a nationwide scale. Also, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance had presented the idea of shift a few months earlier. The need of a proper timeline is very much required amongst diverse work environment. Many of the projects have failed to show anticipated outcomes due to improper time management.

Madhya Pradesh was the first state to accept the shifted financial year of January-December from 2018.