Ahead of the beginning Budget preparations from September 4, the Finance Ministry on Monday put in place a team of senior bureaucrats headed by Ratan P Watal, who was designated as Finance Secretary.
The 59-year-old Watal is a 1978 batch IAS officer from the Andhra Pradesh cadre and is the senior-most bureaucrat in the finance ministry. Watal was until now the Expenditure Secretary.
Last week, the government had moved Shaktikant Das as Economic Affairs Secretary from the Revenue Department and brought in Hasmukh Adhia as the new Revenue Secretary.
This is for the first time that the posts of Economic Affairs and Finance have been separated in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.
Before this, Rajiv Mehrishi headed both the Finance and Economic Affairs Departments.
