New Delhi, Aug 29 (UNI) The NDA government at the Centre, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has reinitiated a national debate on changing the calendar of financial year. At present, the Centre as well as state governments are following the financial year that runs from April 1 to March 31. The idea behind the new debate is whether India should move to a financial year of January 1 to December 31 for both Central and state governments. The Government has appointed a Committee chaired by Dr Shankar Acharya, former chief economic adviser, to examine the desirability and feasibility of having a ‘new financial year’. Other distinguished members of the Committee are K M Chandrasekhar, former Cabinet Secretary, PV Rajaraman, former Principal Finance Secretary, Tamil Nadu and Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Senior Fellow Centre for Policy Research. This issue was being re-examined after a gap of more than three decades. The issue was last examined by the L K Jha Committee in 1985, whose recommendation to move to a financial year of January 1- December 31 (for Central and State Governments) was then not accepted by the then Government. More UNI MK SV ADG 0955