NEW DELHI: Union Budget has for decades been presented on last day of February, but this could soon change with the government mulling advancing it to January end so as to complete the budget exercise before the beginning of the new fiscal. "States are being consulted for capital and revenue expenditure classification. An internal group is working on it. This will give the right direction in simplification of accounts and also how we focus on expenditure," another source said.Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Budget speech announced of doing away with Plan and Non-Plan classification from 2017-18, in line with the termination of 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17).Also with the roll out of the GST, possibly from April 1 2017, the need for the Union Government to legislate changes in the excise duties, service tax and cesses will cease to exit as they would all be subsumed in the new national sales tax. This practice was inherited from the pre-Independence era, when the British Parliament would pass the budget in the noon followed by India in the evening on the same day.In 2001, the NDA government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee changed the ritual and the then Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha presented the Union Budget at 11 am.Government has already set up a committee to examine the feasibility of having a new financial year, replacing the existing April-March period.The committee, which will submit its report by December, will examine merits and demerits of various dates for commencement of a financial year, including the existing dates (April-March).

Source: Economic Times August 21, 2016 08:03 UTC