Hyderabad: The proposed change in the budget year from April-March period to January-December period will not happen unless the central government amends the relevant law.
Two days ago, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had instructed finance minister Etela Rajendar, principal secretary (finance) K. Ramakrishna Rao and other officials to visit Madhya Pradesh for studying as to how they are going to make this transition.
Following the instructions, the TS finance department officials contacted their Madhya Pradesh counterparts about their budget system.The Madhya Pradesh government finance officials, however, appears to have told Telangana State finance officials that they are still following the existing system and that they have just planned to introduce the budget for January-December period as proposed by NITI Aayog.
With Madhya Pradesh not yet taken any steps for the transition to the new budgetary period, the TS officials have dropped the idea of visiting Madhya Pradesh.
According to the officials, changing the budgetary year is not going to be an easy tax as it involves a lengthy process. According to them, the total auditing system has to change to the new format.
With the state government getting about half of the state budget from the Centre in the way of grants, tax devolution and centrally-assisted schemes, any change in the budgetary period independent of the central government is impossible.
If the Centre also adopts the new budget year, the officials claimed that similar change would be easy to make in at the state level. Otherwise, the state must do it in close coordination with the Central government.
