Yogesh Agarwal's term as pension regulator cut short

DFS Secretary Rajiv Takru says govt would now advertise post so that new chairman could take charge within a month

In what could be the first time a regulator quit before completion of his term, Yogesh Agarwal, chairman of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), resigned on Wednesday — about one-and-a-half years before the end of his tenure.

This came within days of the finance ministry not including him in the selection committee for whole-time members of PFRDA, unprecedented for a regulator.

The finance ministry’s Department of Financial Services (DFS) announced Agarwal had demitted office on the forenoon of Wednesday and DFS Joint Secretary Anup Wadhawan had been given concurrent charge of PFRDA till a replacement was found.

DFS Secretary Rajiv Takru said Agarwal had resigned on his own and the government would advertise the post, so that a new chairman could take charge within a month.

“(He said) now that the PFRDA Act had been passed, the government may like to reconstitute the board,” Takru said, when asked what reason had been given by Agarwal for putting in his papers. He said Agarwal’s exclusion from the selection panel could not have been a reason for the decision.

A person close to the development, however, said he was asked to step down and the finance ministry had sounded him on this last week. Business Standard could not verify this.

“I have resigned and have been relieved,” Agarwal told Business Standard. He did not give reasons for his resignation. On not being included in the selection panel, he said, “You should ask the government.”

After serving as chairman of IDBI Bank, Agarwal was appointed PFRDA chairman for five years in June 2010, when Pranab Mukherjee, now the country’s president, was finance minister. PFRDA was not a statutory body at that time. After a Bill to this effect was passed by Parliament in September, it got legal backing.

At present, the PFRDA board consists of a chairman and a part-time member, Sudha Krishnan, who is a joint secretary in the finance ministry. The PFRDA Act, 2013, says the authority should consist of a chairperson and not more than six members, of whom at least three should be whole-time members, to be appointed by the government. The chairperson and every whole-time member would hold office for a term of five years and be eligible for reappointment. The age limit for a chairperson is 65 years and for whole-time members, 62 years. A part-time member should hold office for a term not exceeding five years from the date on which he enters the office, the Act says.

The panel for selection of two whole-time members has Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram; Department of Personnel & Training Secretary Syamal Kumar Sarkar; Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Chairman TS Vijayan; former Life Insurance Corporation chairman S B Mathur and Takru.