An experienced team behind Budget 2011

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has a relatively experienced team this time compared to last year’s, when both the revenue secretary, and the chief economic advisor were new. Most of the senior officials in the finance ministry had worked on last year’s Budget and are expected to provide the continuity this year as well.

Finance secretary Sushma Nath is the senior-most among the officials in the Budget team this year.

Revenue secretary Sunil Mitra had his first brush with the Budget last year. He came to the revenue department in February last year and worked on the Budget only towards the end. Budget 2011-12, to be tabled on Monday, will be his first full-fledged Budget. Economic Affairs Secretary R Gopalan has come in place of Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla, who retired on January 31.

His successor in the disinvestment department, Sumit Bose, also got a little chance to work on last year’s Budget as he joined the department in February. Bose, however, may get more opportunities to work on the Budget as his retirement is three years away. Though the disinvestment secretary, is not part of the core Budget team, his inputs are crucial because a portion of government’s capital expenditure on social sector programmes are to be met from disinvestment proceeds.

Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu, a professor at the Cornell University in the US, joined the finance ministry in December 2009 and got a fair chance to work on the 2010 Budget. This time he has been involved from the beginning.

Chiefs of the two boards of the revenue department — Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) and Central Board of direct Taxes (CBDT) are also not new to the Budget-making process. CBEC Chairman S Dutt Majumder and CBDT Chairman Sudhir Chandra were members on their respective boards and worked in that capacity on the last Budget.

Y G Parande, member (Budget), Shaktikanta Das, joint secretary (Budget) and other officials in the Budget Division of the department of economic affairs will provide the link between all the related departments and ministries.

In the Tax Research Unit (TRU), joint secretary Vivek Johri will provide the continuity, while another joint secretary V K Garg, who replaced Gautam Bhattacharya, will be a new member in the team. Their inputs will not only be required for doing the tax calculus but also to ensure that the Budget proposals consider a smooth introduction of the GST regime.

On the direct tax side, the ground work has been done by joint secretaries Ashutosh Dixit and Sunil Gupta. Direct tax proposals are expected to be in line with changes that are being planned as part of the DTC.