Presidential Proposal to Change Fiscal Year

By Tin Htet Paing 17 October 2017

YANGON — A presidential proposal to change the national fiscal year was submitted to the Union Parliament on Thursday in Naypyitaw.

The Myanmar government’s fiscal year is the 12-month period beginning on 1 April and ending on 31 March. President U Htin Kyaw submitted a letter to Parliament late last month urging lawmakers to change it to 1 October through to 30 September starting from the 2018-19 financial year.

Fiscal years vary in different countries—156 countries follow the calendar year while 12 countries including the United States, Laos and Thailand use the October-September period. Myanmar has been practicing the April-March fiscal year since 1974.

On Tuesday, the first day of Parliament after more than a month-long break, the deputy minister U Maung Maung Win for the planning and finance ministry took the floor, saying that the possible redetermination was based on the nature of slow, local infrastructure businesses and a long New Year holiday in the early period of the current fiscal year.

“The construction industry doesn’t have much business during monsoon while there is effective operation and no long holidays starting from October,” U Maung Maung Win said, endorsing the proposal at Parliament. He added that changing it would balance the accounting process for businesses and institutions.

The determination of the fiscal year is mainly based on a country’s economic mission, monetary and financial policies, he said.

The issue was brought into parliamentary discussion late last year by a lawmaker and was later discussed during the meeting of the union financial commission held in July.

Based on consultation with union ministries and state-level institutions, the decision to change the fiscal year was made by cabinet members in September, U Maung Maung Win explained.

Union lawmakers will discuss the presidential proposal later this week.