With the government delaying the all-important notification extending the tenures of Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla and Expenditure Secretary Sushama Nath by a couple of months, speculation is rife over an imminent change of guard at North Block, headquarters of the finance ministry. In the normal course, Chawla will retire by the end of January and Nath by the end of March. But by convention once the Budget exercise starts, secretaries in the finance ministry do not retire before Parliament passes the Budget, usually by the first week of May. There are exceptions, but these are rare. Hence, the delay in the notification extending Chawla and Nath’s tenure has intrigued officials in North Block, making many of them wonder if a new finance secretary would be in place at the start of next month.
Who that new incumbent would be is anybody’s guess. If Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar goes to North Block in place of Chawla to take charge of the department of economic affairs, then Nath is likely to become the finance secretary while remaining in charge of the expenditure department, since she will be the senior-most among all the secretaries in the ministry.
