NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday designated revenue secretary
Ajay Bhushan P Pandey
as the
new finance secretary
, making him in-charge of all budget-related work.
The 1984-batch officer is the senior most secretary in the finance ministry, with others dealing with economic affairs, expenditure, financial services and DIPAM being junior to him. Pandey, who has spent last 15 months handling the crucial revenue portfolio, will have a term of nearly one year as finance secretary.
Since moving to North Block, the Maharashtra cadre officer has been part of crucial decisions such as a sharp reduction in corporation tax rate as well as the option to allow lower personal income tax rate for those, who are willing to give up tax exemptions, such as those available for investment in certain instruments.
He has been driving data analytics to detect GST frauds and evasion through a non-intrusive mechanism even as reform of indirect tax system remains work in progress. Pandey — who studied electrical engineering at IIT and has a doctoral thesis in computer science from the University of Minnesota — is known for his no nonsense approach and has overseen the compulsory retirement of several tax officials.
The civil servant was among the initial set of officers, who were part of the Unique Identification Authority of India and worked on rolling out Aadhaar. He went on to head the agency and was closely involved with the cases in Supreme Court, which finally led to the legal validation of Aadhaar.
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