New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said the government is considering changing the financial year to January-December to coincide with the calendar year.
“The matter of changing the financial year is under consideration of the government,” Jaitley said here in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
The matter has been examined recently by a committee constituted by the government under the chairmanship of former Chief Economic Adviser Shankar Acharya. The report of the committee has been received, the Finance Minister said.
Jaitley refused to comment on whether the government was proposing to present the Union Budget in November-December this year to enable the change in the financial year.
At a Niti Aayog meeting earlier in the year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a pitch for a January-December financial calendar for the country. 
Addressing the states during NITI Aayog governing council meeting on April 23, Modi had said, “In a country where agricultural income is exceedingly important, budgets should be prepared immediately after the receipt of agricultural incomes for the year”.
Meanwhile, the government also said that over 1.62 lakh companies that have not been carrying out business activities for long have been deregistered and a series of actions are being taken against shell firms.
While the term ‘shell company’ is not defined under the Companies Act, Corporate Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley told the Lok Sabha that many such entities have been found to be indulging in large scale tax violations.
“However, the Registrars of Companies (RoCs) have removed 1,62,618 companies from the register of companies as at July 12, 2017, after following the due process under Section 248 of the Companies Act, 2013,” he said during Question Hour. His response was to a query on whether a large number of shell companies and entities that are primarily used as conduits for dealing in black money and hawala transactions have come to the notice of the government.