Ex-CBDT chief Nitin Gupta appointed NFRA chairperson for 3-year term

Nitin Gupta succeeds Ravneet Kaur as NFRA chair; watchdog is auditing Gensol and assessing discrepancies in IndusInd Bank account balances

The Cabinet’s appointments committee has approved making Nitin Gupta, a 1986-batch retired Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, as the chairperson of the National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA), said a government order.

 

Gupta, a former chairperson of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), will take over from Ravneet Kaur, the acting chairperson of NFRA.

 

He has been appointed for a term of three years or until he turns 65, whichever is earlier. A civil engineer by training, Gupta has also served as director general at the Competition Commission of India, New Delhi, for more than three years.

 

Ajay Bhushan Pandey, former chief executive officer of the Unique Identification Authority of India, was the last full-time chairperson of the NFRA. 

 

The appointments committee also appointed retired IRS officer Smita Jhingran, retired Indian Defence Estates Service officer P Daniels, and retired Indian Audit and Accounts Service officer Sushil Kumar Jaiswal as full-time members of the NFRA.

 

Constituted in October 2018, the NFRA is an independent watchdog for auditing and accounting standards.

 

Gupta will lead NFRA at a time when it is reviewing the books of Gensol Engineering in a matter related to allegations of fund diversion by its promoters. It is also in the process of assessing whether an investigation is required into discrepancies in the account balances of IndusInd Bank.

 

Last year, the NFRA had proposed the adoption of revised auditing standards aligned with global practices to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).

 

Following NFRA’s recommendations, the MCA must approve and notify the new standards. The NFRA has recommended the revised norms be made effective from 1 April 2026, subject to government approval.