UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey to replace Hasmukh Adhia as Revenue Secretary

Ajay Bhushan Pandey

Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and Chairman of Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), has been appointed as Revenue Secretary, replacing incumbent Hasmukh Adhia, who is set to retire on November 30, a government notification stated.

Pandey, a 1984 batch Maharashtra-cadre IAS officer, will continue to hold charge as UIDAI CEO as well as GSTN Chairman until further orders.

Pandey is a graduate of electrical engineering from IIT, Kanpur. In 1998, he went on to join University of Minnesota where he obtained his MS and PhD degrees in Computer Science. In 2009, he was awarded the Distinguished Leadership Award for Internationals by the University of Minnesota for outstanding leadership accomplishments in his professional career.

In another key appointment ahead of the Narendra Modi-led government’s last budget, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet ordained Girish Chandra Murmu as Officer on Special Duty (OSD), Expenditure, until January 31, 2019. After that, he will take over as Expenditure Secretary on superannuation of present secretary Ajay Narayan Jha. Murmu, a 1985 batch Gujarat cadre IAS officer, was Additional Secretary in the Finance Ministry's Revenue Department.

Finance and Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia has been in the Finance Ministry for four years and held the specific responsibility of Revenue Secretary for the last three years.

On Saturday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in a Facebook post praised the Gujarat cadre IAS officer for his impeccable integrity, discipline and professionalism and his contribution towards major policies and reforms such as the rollout of the new indirect tax system: GST.

As Banking Secretary from November 2014 to August 2015, Adhia had played a key role in implementation of various social security programmes of the government through banking services.

“His tenure as Revenue Secretary will be remembered for various initiatives, where he provided the bureaucratic leadership in shaping and implementation of policy. The campaign against black money, both within and outside the country, was the initial highlight of the Revenue Department. The Income Tax Department now functions online with no physical interface between the assessee and the assessment official,” Jaitley said in the post.