The government, on Wednesday, appointed Arunish Chawla as the new Revenue Secretary. He will succeed Sanjay Malhotra, who was appointed as RBI Governor earlier this month.

Chawla is among seven bureaucrats who have been transferred from one Ministry/Department to another. With the appointment of Chawla, five of six posts of Secretaries have been filled. After Malhotra’s appointment, Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth was given the additional charge of the Revenue Department. Meanwhile, the Finance Secretary and Secretary in the Department of Investment & Public Asset Management (DIPAM) will continue to hold the additional charge of the Department of Public Enterprises.

Chawla is a 1992-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from the Bihar cadre. With a PhD and postgraduate degree in Economics from the London School of Economics, he was serving as Pharmaceutical Secretary, before being appointed as the Revenue Secretary. This would be his second stint in the Finance Ministry. Earlier he served as Joint Secretary in the Expenditure Department. He also worked as Minister (Economics) at the Indian Embassy in the US and as a Senior Economist with the IMF.

Chawla is joining at a time, when the Finance Ministry is preparing for the presentation of the Union Budget on February 1. Apart from giving the final touches to the revenue numbers, his immediate task would be to oversee a comprehensive review of the Income-tax Act. Announced in July, it was scheduled to be completed in six months and it was expected that the next Budget will have something on the proposed new framework.

Chawla would also be ex-officio Secretary to the GST Council. He is scheduled to superannuate in July 2028.

Other changes

Meanwhile, Chawla will be replaced by Amit Agrawal as Pharmaceutical Secretary, 1993 batch IAS officer, Agarwal is presently Chief Executive Officer at Unique Identification Authority of India. Neelam Shami Rao, 1992 IAS Officer of Madhya Pradesh has been appointed as the new Textiles Secretary. She will replace 1991 batch Kerala cadre IAS officer Rachna Shah, who will now serve as Secretary in the Department of Personnel and Training. Rao’s current role as Secretary in the National Minorities Commission will be filled by Sanjay Sethi, 1992 batch IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre.

Vineet Joshi will be new Higher Education Secretary. A 1992 batch Manipur cadre IAS officer is coming to central deputation. Also, 1993 batch Haryana cadre IAS officer Neeraj Shekhar has been appointed as Director General in National Productivity Council in the rank and pay of Secretary..