New Delhi [India], Mar 3 : Revenue Secretary Dr Ajay Bhushan Pandey has been designated by the Appointment Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) as the Finance Secretary on Tuesday.
An Electrical Engineering graduate from IIT Kanpur, he joined the University of Minnesota in 1998 to obtain his MS and PhD in Computer Science and was later awarded Distinguished Leadership Award for Internationals by the University of Minnesota for his outstanding leadership accomplishments in his professional career.
Dr Ajay Bhushan Pandey took on duties as the Revenue Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Finance on December 1, 2018. He concurrently holds the position of the Chairman, GSTN (Goods & Services Tax Network) since September 2017 and is also the Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Coordination Committee (IMCC) to prevent money-laundering activities.
Since his taking over as the Revenue Secretary, he has been at the helm of significant taxation reforms bringing in the simplification of taxation processes, transparency through the use of technology and revenue growth with data triangulation and analytics without any overreach.
He has been instrumental in introducing faceless e-assessment, faceless e-appeal, Document Identification Number (DIN) system, pre-filled income tax returns, quick refunds on ITRs, and the sharp reduction in corporate tax rate, TDS/TCS on cash dealings to stop leakages and tax avoidance and specific measures to bring down litigation in tax matters.
An IAS officer with over 35+ years of experience in state and central governments, he had a remarkable stint of more than 9 years in UIDAI where he played a key role in establishing and steering Aadhaar across the country.
( With inputs from ANI )