Finance Secy Ajay Seth, force behind India's fiscal revival & capex push, concludes 38-year long IAS career

Seth is credited with heading key initiatives, such as India’s first sovereign green bond issuance.

Finance Secretary Ajay Seth retired on Monday, ending his 38-year long career in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). Seth has been credited as one of the architects of the government’s fiscal policy during the tumultuous times of the pandemic – between FY21 and FY22.

The 1987-batch IAS officer was one of the key drivers of driving public capex, and for bettering the Centre’s finances. He was serving as Secretary at the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) since April 2021, playing a significant role in the Budget making process for the past three years.

Seth will be succeeded by Anuradha Thakur as DEA Secretary, starting July 1. Thakur is a 1994-batch IAS, and was earlier Additional Secretary at the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Instrumental in shaping the Centre’s fiscal consolidation glide path, he oversaw the government’s policy efforts in ensuring that the fiscal deficit target is adhered to every year. In fact, the actual deficit was slightly lesser than the Budget-aim.

Under Seth’s leadership, the Centre’s fiscal deficit reduced from 9.3% in FY21 to 4.8% in FY25. In February, the finance ministry announced that the government’s focus would now be on reducing the debt-to-GDP ratio, and not only on fiscal consolidation. The finance ministry has aimed to reduce the fiscal deficit-as-a-percentage of GDP to 50% by FY31 from 56.1% in FY26.

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As the head of the Department of Economic Affairs, Seth played a crucial role in the country’s monetary and market-related policies functioning as the bridge between the central government and regulators such as the Reserve Bank of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

He is also credited with heading key initiatives, such as India’s first sovereign green bond issuance, and the creation of the Infrastructure Finance Secretariat.

The soft-spoken official also held the additional responsibility of co-chairing the G20 central bank and finance minister’s meetings throughout 2023 during India's presidency. As the co-chair, he played a key role in deliberating and forging consensus on important issues such as infrastructure development, sustainable finance, international taxation, among others.

In his previous stint at the Finance Ministry, between 2000 and 2004, Seth served as Deputy Secretary and Director in the Department of Expenditure and Department of Economic Affairs. He is a mechanical engineer and a management post-graduate.

Out of about four-decade long career, he has been in the public finance and taxation domains for 18 years and in social sector and urban transport & infrastructure domains for almost 3 years each in different positions in Government of India, Government of Karnataka and Asian Development Bank.

Seth is a recipient of Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration in 2013, being a member of the team for “transformation of commercial tax administration in Karnataka”.