Lavasa could be next finance secretary

The government is likely to designate the recently-appointed expenditure secretary Ashok Lavasa as finance secretary over his batchmate and finance ministry veteran Shaktikanta Das, who is currently the economic affairs secretary.

Senior government sources said an announcement on the matter is expected this month.

According to existing norms, the senior-most of the five secretaries heading economic affairs, expenditure, revenue, disinvestment and financial services departments is appointed as the finance secretary.

Lavasa became expenditure secretary last week after a 20-month stint as environment secretary. He and Das are of the 1980 Indian Administrative Service batch, with Das belonging to the Tamil Nadu cadre and Lavasa from Haryana cadre.

In a case like this, their position in the merit list will be taken into account. Lavasa is several positions higher in the merit list compared to Das. It should be noted that Das is older than Lavasa by eight months and is slated to reach retirement age in February 2017.

According to government sources, the expected retirement date is also something which could count against Das as his superannuation could occur during the time of Budget preparations for the next financial year. However, the previous finance secretary Ratan Watal's tenure was extended by two months to April as his retirement was also in February.