Finance Secretary Chawla retires, no successor named

New Delhi, Jan 28 (PTI) Ashok Chawla, who took over asFinance Secretary during the turbulent times in the aftermathof the global economic downturn more than two years ago,retired today from service without any successor named for thepost.

With the Union Budget just less than a month away,government appointed R Gopalan, a 1976 batch IAS officer ofthe Tamil Nadu cadre, as the Economic Affairs Secretary in theFinance Ministry.

He replaces Chawla, who was also Secretary in chargeof Department of Economic Affairs. Gopalan was already in theFinance Ministry as Financial Services Secretary. Chawla, whobelonged to the 1973-batch Gujarat cadre IAS, had takencharge as Finance Secretary in May 2009.

Sushma Nath, a 1974-batch Madhya Pradesh cadre of IAS, isthe senior-most official in the ministry, but she is due toretire on March 31. She has been working as Secretary in theExpenditure Department of the Finance Ministry since April2008.

Nath, Gopalan, along with Disinvestment Secretary SumitBose and Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitra would be the keypersons assisting Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who willunveil the Budget for 2011-12 in the Lok Sabha on February 28.

Meanwhile, the government today D K Mittal, a 1977 batchIAS officer of UP cadre, has been appointed as the Secretaryof the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. She will replace RBandyopadhyay who retired today.

At present, Mittal is the Additional Secretary in theDepartment of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has alsoapproved appointment of R Gopalan, presently Secretary,Department of Financial Services as Secretary, Department ofEconomic Affairs, Ministry of Finance.