North Block rejig ahead of Budget

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s core team for the Budget will witness a crucial change on February 1. With the government announcing the appointment of Sunil Mitra as revenue secretary, the West Bengal cadre official will now move to North Block from the Department of Disinvestment, where he spearheaded the recent divestment drive of public sector companies.

Mitra will take over from P V Bhide after January 31. Sumit Bose, secretary to the Thirteenth Finance Commission, will replace Mitra. Bose has been involved with the preparation of the Commission’s report, which forms a crucial input for the next five years of government expenditure and Centre-state financial relationship.

On the day of the announcements, Mukherjee had a pre-Budget meeting with all five secretaries in his ministry. “It is one of the last meetings of all the secretaries with the minister before the Budget,” said an official.

Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla, Expenditure Secretary Sushma Nath and Financial Services Secretary

R Gopalan, too, attended the meeting. The core team, which would chalk out the nitty-gritty of the Budget comprises Chawla, Nath, Mitra, Central Board of Excise and Customs Chairman V Sridhar and Centre Board of Direct Taxes Chairman S S N Moorthy.

Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu, who took charge last month, would oversee the preparation of the Economic Survey. The core team this year would primarily preside over the stimulus exit strategy.

Meanwhile, the change in the revenue department, which works under the Ministry of Finance, less than a month before the Budget on February 26, raises concern about continuity in some quarters.

There have been instances of senior officials, especially on the revenue side, getting extensions when Budget preparations are on in full swing. It is widely accepted though that bureaucratic continuity in the government is not a big issue so long there is political and policy continuity.