Hasmukh Adhia,
IAS (born 3November 1958) is an Indian Banker and a civil servant. He is one of the key persons behind the architecture and roll-out of the
Goods and Services Tax & Demonetization scheme announced in 2016. He is an
Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1981Gujarat cadre batch who served as
Finance Secretary and
Revenue Secretary of State.[2] He previously served in several capacities for the
Indian and
Gujarat governments, including as
Financial Services Secretary. He is the present Chairman of Standing Committee of Pandit Deendayal Energy University, Gandhinagar and Non-Executive Chairman of
Bank of Baroda.[3]
A week after the government nominated him chairman of state-owned Bank of Baroda, he was appointed as the
Chancellor of
Central University of Gujarat.[4]
Ahead of his retirement, Adhia was praised by
Minister of FinanceArun Jaitley, who called him "highly competent, disciplined, no-nonsense civil servant [...] with impeccable integrity,"[17][23] and said that Adhia refused important post-retirement assignment from the government and instead intended to focus on spirituality and caring for his son.[23][24]
During his tenure as Revenue Secretary, Adhia was regarded as one of the most powerful bureaucrats in India.[25]
Controversies
Adhia is considered one of the key persons behind the architecture and roll-out of the controversial
Goods and Service Tax in India.[26] He is also considered to be privy to another major controversial move of
demonetisation of Rs500 and Rs.1000 Currency notes which forced the retirement of 86percent of cash in circulation in India on 8November 2016.[7][26][27]
He was also accused of diluting graft charges against congress leader like
Sonia Gandhi,
P.Chidambaram.[28] Hasmukh Adhia was accused of interfering and preventing promotion of Enforcement Directorate Joint Director Rajeshwar Singh.[29] BJP Leader Subramaniam Swamy filed a petition in Supreme Court in favour of Rajeshwar Singh.
Hasmukh Adhia was considered to be one of the key persons in bringing controversial
LTCG tax for Stocks without any indexation benefits. This move was considered to be illogical and became largely unpopular in Indian Stock Market. This triggered Foreign Inverstors to pull out investment from Indian Stock Market and triggered a Market Crash on 2 February 2018, a day after the announcement was made.[30]
Hasmukh Adhia along with Indian Finance minister Arun Jaitley became highly unpopular after piling up taxes and cess on Indian Salaried Class instead of raising the tax slab. There was an outrage among salaried class when he was quoted saying "Why shouldn’t we tax a class that is investing in markets".[31]
Books
Adhia, Hasmukh (2007). Reinventing Government through HRM Strategies.
Hyderabad: ICFAI University Press (published 5 October 2007).
ISBN978-8131412503.
Adhia, Hasmukh (2008). My Notes to Myself: Simple tips on human resource management taken from the diary of a bureaucrat (in English and Gujarati).
Hyderabad: ICFAI University Press (published 28 March 2008).
ISBN978-8131414217.