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Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia to retire on Nov 30
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SME Times News Bureau | 17 Nov, 2018
Hasmukh Adhia, the Gujarat cadre IAS officer who had an eventful stint
as Finance Secretary during the days of demonetisation and the ushering
in of the GST regime, is set to retire on November 30, the government
announced on Saturday - putting to rest all speculation about his
getting an extension.
Adhia, who turned 60 earlier this month,
worked in the Finance Ministry for four years including the last three
years as Revenue Secretary. He was expected to get an extension, going
by the past practice when tenure of Secretaries in the ministry was
usually extended if it ended close to the Union Budget's presentation.
Announcing
Adhia's retirement in a Facebook post, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley
said the government wanted him to continue in some "alternate" capacity
but he declined to do so.
"He (Adhia) had informed me earlier
this year that he would not work for a single day after November 30. His
time thereafter belongs to his favourite passion (spirituality and
yoga) and of course his son," Jaitley said in the post.
While
wishing him a good post-retirement life, Jaitley commended Adhia's
contributions as Revenue Secretary for bringing a series of reforms
including execution of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and making the
income tax filing process online with no physical interface between the
assessee and the assessment official.
In a series of tweets,
Adhia expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance
Minister Jaitley for their guidance and leadership during his four year
stint.
"My special gratitude to the Prime Minister for his
guidance and to Arun Jaitley ji for having acknowledged my contribution
publicly," the outgoing Secretary said.
Word about Adhia's
retirement immediately fuelled speculation about his successor as
Revenue Secretary. The name of Unique Identification Authority of India
(UIDAI) CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey, a 1984 batch IAS officer of the
Maharashtra cadre, is making the rounds.
The post of Finance
Secretary, which conventionally goes to the senior-most of the
Secretaries in the Ministry, is likely to go to Expenditure Secretary
Ajay Narayan Jha of the 1982 batch.
As Revenue Secretary, Adhia's
term witnessed the introduction of the GST uniform tax regime, evolving
a Centre-states consensus on the multiple GST laws and drafting the
rules and fixing tariffs that made it possible to meet the deadline of
July 1, 2017 for the GST roll-out, Jaitley said.
Rate reductions and smoothening of the rough edges were also achieved in a record time during Adhia's tenure, he added.
"Adhia's
tenure saw an exponential increase in tax base and the tax
realisations... The follow-up after demonetisation in detecting the
large cash depositors and making them accountable was no mean challenge.
Adhia executed these steps with calm and professionalism," he said.
Jaitley
also appreciated Adhia's prior role as Financial Services Secretary in
successfully implementing various social security programmes, including
the Mudra Yojana, which is targeted at funding micro units.
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