New Delhi: India should shift to the January – December financial year by ending the decades old tradition of April – March fiscal introduced by the British, a Parliamentary Panel said today.

The present system was adopted by the Government of India in 1867 principally to align the Indian financial year with that of the British government. Prior to 1867, the financial year in India used to commence on May 1 and end on April 30 of the following year.

Criticising the Finance Ministry for “hastening” the exercise of Budget presentation, the Standing Committee on Finance, chaired by Congress MP M Veerappa Moily, said “greater preparation and adequate groundwork should have been made” before preponing Budget by a month.

“The Committee would thus expect a more thorough exercise next year onwards. Keeping in view the above constraints, the Committee would suggest that the financial year may also be correspondingly shifted to calendar year and the budget date be further advanced correspondingly,” it said.

It concurred with the government’s decision to advance budget date to end financial business of the government before March 31 so that the respective ministries are able to spend their allocated money from the beginning of the financial year.

Ending the decades old practice of presenting Union Budget on the last working day of February, the government presented the Budget for 2017-18 on February 1.

“The Committee, however, finds that shifting the Budget by one month leads to non-availability of comparative data for almost a quarter and in the process the utilisation of funds, achievement of physical and financial targets cannot be determined,” the report said.

The government had last year appointed a high-level committee to study the feasibility of shifting financial year to January 1 from the current practice of starting the fiscal from April 1. The panel submitted its report to the Finance Minister in December.

A Niti Aayog panel, headed by its member Bibek Debroy, had also reportedly favoured following the calendar year as the financial year.

A change in financial year would require amendments in various statutes and changes in tax laws during the transitional period.

The Standing Committee also highlighted “inconsistencies” in budget allocation and occurrence of wide variations between the budget estimates and actuals of various departments.

Giving instances of inconsistent budgeting and recurring occurrences of wide variation between the budget estimates, revised estimates and actuals, it said the budgetary exercise should have been done with greater due diligence.

“The Committee would once again urge that the standard rules and guidelines may be strictly applied and if required, objective parameters may be devised for this purpose so as to avoid inconsistencies and mismatch in their estimates in future and put forth realistic and need based demands,” it said.

PTI

The post Parliamentary Panel for shifting fiscal year to January-December appeared first on CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES NEWS.

Several members in a parliamentary panel have pitched for quick implementation of the Centre’s proposed move to double salary and allowances of MPs and insisted that report of any government-constituted committee on the matter must be channelled through it.

At a meeting of the Joint Committee on Salaries and Allowances of Members of Parliament on Wednesday, a number of MPs favoured routing of report of any independent mechanism, being set up to review salary and allowances of MPs, through the panel, which draws its power from Parliament, sources said.

They said before the report is handed over to the government it should be vetted by the committee. The members also insisted their pay and perks should be equal to that of the Cabinet Secretary, they said.

The Centre had in September last proposed to constitute a three-member Emoluments Commission to determine salary and allowances of Members of Parliament and it was endorsed at the two-day All India Whips Conference on September 29 and 30.

The proposal had come in the backdrop of a controversy over a parliamentary panel’s recommendations in June last to double the pay and perks of lawmakers. The Joint Committee, headed by BJP MP Yogi Adityanath, in its meetings in May and July last year had opined that there was need for an independent system/mechanism for review of salary and allowances of MPs.

The committee suggested that while considering enhancement of salary, parameters like inflation and hike in the salary of government officials should be taken into consideration. The panel also asked the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry to place before it the proposal.

The Ministry representatives on Wednesday told the panel that a cabinet note has been prepared for doubling salary and allowances of MPs.

To this, the panel members asked them to place the note before the Union Cabinet soon for its early approval so the proposals become a reality in this Union Budget. The Budget session of Parliament begins on February 23 and the Union Budget will be presented on February 29.

An MP gets a salary of Rs 50,000 per month. In addition, Rs 2,000 per day is paid as daily allowance when an MP signs the register while attending Parliament sessions or House committee meetings.

An MP is also entitled to Rs 45,000 constituency allowance every month — Rs 15,000 for stationery and Rs 30,000 to employ secretarial assistance staff.

In their sitting on October 20 last year, the committee decided to enhance the amount of Constituency Allowance from the present Rs 45,000 to Rs 75,000, which required an amendment in rules.

MPs are also entitled for government accommodation, air travel and train travel facilities, besides three landline telephone connections and two mobile phones. They also get a loan of Rs 4 lakh to buy a vehicle.

PTI

The post Double MPs salary, allowances soon: Parliamentary panel members to government appeared first on CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES NEWS.