With just over three weeks remaining until the Union Budget, the government has reassigned newly appointed Revenue Secretary Arunish Chawla to the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) and replaced him with Finance Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey.

Pandey, a 1987-batch Odisha cadre IAS officer, is the senior-most secretary in the finance ministry. He has led DIPAM for five years and previously served as the Secretary of the Department of Public Enterprises.

Chawla, who had been appointed revenue secretary on December 25, was earlier secretary in the department of pharmaceuticals.
While no reason was given for the sudden changes, officials speculated that the revenue department is a busy portfolio, especially ahead of the Budget, and required close monitoring. In addition to being the revenue secretary, Chawla is the culture secretary, an assignment which has a heavy workload with Republic Day and Maha Kumbh just days away.

Being the finance secretary, who coordinates the Budget exercise, Pandey has been working with revenue, expenditure, economic affairs, and financial services departments, which are part of the finance ministry.

Bureaucratic changes are common, but this year's reshuffle in the finance ministry is exceptional. It began in December with the unexpected appointment of Sanjay Malhotra as RBI Governor. This shift in one of the ministry's core departments led to Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth taking on additional responsibilities as head of the revenue department, ahead of the GST Council meeting on December 21. Subsequently, Arunish Chawla was appointed Revenue Secretary for less than two weeks.