Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia To Retire On Nov. 30

Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia is set to retire on Nov. 30 after more than three-and-a-half decades of service.

Adhia, a 1981-batch Gujarat cadre officer of the Indian Administrative Services, moved to Delhi in November 2014 as secretary in the Department of Financial Services after Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister. During his four-year stint in the Finance Ministry, Adhia led the rollout of the goods and services tax besides implementing a host of laws to unearth black money.

In a series of tweets, Adhia thanked Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for their guidance and expressed gratitude to his officers and staff. “I retire on 30th November with a sense of great satisfaction for what I could do for the country. I am grateful to all those officers and staff who worked with me.”

Jaitley, in a Facebook post, called Adhia “highly competent”, “disciplined” civil servant with “impeccable integrity”. The finance minister credited Adhia with implementing GST. “It was his efforts supported by his team of officers of centre and state governments, which made it possible to hit the deadline of 1st July 2017. Rate reductions and smoothening of the rough edges were also achieved in a record time.”

Jaitley said the government wanted to use Adhia’s capability and experience in some alternate capacity. “He (Adhia) had informed me earlier this year that he would not work for a single day after the 30th of November 2018. His time thereafter belongs to his favourite passion and of course his son.”

Jaitley said during Adhia’s tenure as revenue secretary, tax base and tax realisation saw an “exponential increase”. “He was ably supported by the two boards, CBDT and CBIC. The follow-up after demonetisation in detecting the large cash depositors and making them accountable was no mean challenge,” the Finance Minister wore.

Jaitley said Adhia's tenure as the revenue secretary will be remembered for various initiatives where he provided the bureaucratic leadership in shaping and implementation of the policy.

“The campaign against black money both within and outside the country was the initial highlight of the Revenue Department,” he said.

Jaitley also noted that the Income Tax Department now functions online with no physical interface between the assessee and the assessment official.