In 2018, the financial year in India could commence from January instead of April as the Centre appears set to make the historic transition to end the 150-year-old tradition, PTI has reported.

The sources said the government is working on aligning the financial year with the calendar year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi pitched for a change.This is likely to advance the Union Buget to November in place of February earlier.

This will enable the country break-away from countries that still follow the April to March cycle.

The United Kingdom follows the April 1 to March 31 period as the financial year. This is a practice that is now many centuries old in that country. The government in Canada also follows the April 1 to March 31 cycle and similarly for a country like Japan.

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