Senior bureaucrat Arvind Shrivastava on Thursday took charge as revenue secretary to the central government, according to an official statement.
Shrivastava’s appointment was cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet on 18 April. A 1994-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Karnataka cadre, he was previously serving as additional secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office.
In his new role, Shrivastava will be responsible for overseeing the Centre’s revenue collection targets, steering the strategy for direct and indirect tax administration, and supervising various investigative agencies under the Department of Revenue. He will also work closely with the Ministry of Commerce on trade negotiations with countries including the UK and the US.
As revenue secretary in the Union finance ministry, Shrivastava will play a key role in shaping proposals for GST Council meetings in coordination with state governments.
Shrivastava brings considerable experience to the role. He has earlier served as Joint Secretary in the PMO and worked in the Budget Division of the Department of Economic Affairs in the finance ministry. He has also held positions in the Asian Development Bank, the Government of Karnataka, and as Managing Director of the Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation in Karnataka.
Before Shrivastava’s appointment, the Department of Revenue was overseen by Finance Secretary Ajay Seth, who also heads the Department of Economic Affairs.
The Revenue Department is central to the government’s resource mobilization efforts, particularly in supporting its ambitious capital expenditure programme and fiscal consolidation roadmap.
In the Union Budget for FY26, presented on 1 February, Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman laid out a new debt reduction target. Under this five-year plan starting FY27, the Centre aims to bring down its debt to 50% of GDP, give or take 1%, by 31 March 2031, from a projected 57.1% in FY25, according to budget documents.
