New Delhi: “On the path of spirituality. Convinced fully that real happiness comes only through spiritual wisdom,” says the Twitter handle of revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia, the person at the forefront of the tax proposals in Budget 2016.
Adhia, a 1981 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Gujarat cadre, has also played an important role in defending and communicating the intent behind these budget proposals—the controversial and not so controversial.
Two tax proposals courted controversy in this year’s budget—the government’s decision to partially tax withdrawals from the employees’ provident fund (EPF) and the levy of 1% excise duty on jewellery.
In both these cases, Adhia was among the first movers in the government to explain the rationale. He clarified that the tax on EPF withdrawals was not a revenue augmentation proposal but instead aimed at moving India towards a pensioned society. Also, within couple of days of jewellers going on strike to protest the excise duty, the finance ministry issued a detailed statement on the safeguards being put in place to protect jewellers from harassment.
While the government rolled back its decision to tax withdrawals from EPF, it stood firm on its decision to impose an excise duty of 1% on all items of jewellery, with the exception of silver jewellery, prompting jewellers to continue their strike.
The stalemate ended after the jewellers called off the 19-day strike on Saturday after assurances from the government that sufficient safeguards have been put in place to prevent harassment. In a meeting between representative bodies, Adhia and Najib Shah, chairman of the central board of excise and customs, also explained a number of steps taken by the government for the smooth imposition of this levy.
Adhia has also lived up to the promises made by him when he took over as the revenue secretary in September last year. Immediately after taking charge, he had spelt out his main priorities—simplification of rules and procedures under tax laws and cleaning up the tax department. In a major departure, he also gave out his personal email id—adhia1981@gmail.com—to encourage taxpayers and whistleblowers within the department to come forward with instances of corruption as well as to address their grievances with the assurance of full secrecy.
Since then, many steps have been announced to make the system taxpayer-friendly through clarification on issues that have caused major litigation in the past.
A yoga enthusiast and author of two books on human resource management, Adhia is also among the few officials who has closely worked with Narendra Modi, both when Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat and now India’s Prime Minister. Prior to moving to the Centre in November 2014 as secretary, department of financial services, Adhia was additional chief secretary, finance, in the Gujarat government. The other posts he held in the Gujarat government include principal secretary (education) and principal secretary to the chief minister. He also has his own website http://adhia.org/.
