NDA 2.0’s First Major Bureaucratic Reshuffle, Ex-Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg Opts For Retirement Post Transfer

The new NDA government at the Centre has concluded its first major bureaucratic reshuffle with several top government secretaries having been transferred to other departments and ministries.

The orders passed by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) on Wednesday (24 July) however, hasn’t gone down well with the now ex-finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg who having been transferred to the Ministry of Power has reportedly opted for retirement instead.

Garg, a 1983 batch IAS officer from the Rajasthan cadre had been serving as the secretary to the Department of Economic Affairs since 2017 and took over as the finance secretary in 2018. He has been replaced with Atanu Chakraborty, a 1985 batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre.

Garg has opted for the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) and his application is currently being processed as reported by Mint. Garg was to replace Ajay Kumar Bhalla as the Power Ministry secretary, who has now been appointed as an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to serve the Home Ministry.

Top officials at 12 ministries have been reassigned as part of Wednesday’s reshuffle which included officers at the ministries of power, telecommunication, textiles among others. Among the appointments, eight 1986-batch officers have been made secretaries at various departments.

Garg, aged 58, has served at several important posts during his tenure, including his term as the Executive Director of the World Bank between September 2014 to June 2017.

He was also part of the Bimal Jalan Committee as the representative of the government for examining the transfer of excess RBI capital to the government. The committee’s report is expected to include a dissent note from Garg, with the committee having been in favour of a phased transfer of excess capital as opposed to the government wish of completing the transfer in one-go.

Apart from this, Garg also headed Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) setup by the government to make recommendations with regards to the policy on cryptocurrencies.

The committee had recently submitted its report to the government recognising the rapidly-evolving area. While recognising the positive aspect of distributed ledger technology (DLT), the report evaluated the risk of privately managed cryptocurrencies and recommended banning them in India along with imposing fines and penalties for carrying on of any activities connected with cryptocurrencies in India.