Arun Jaitley resumes office as Finance Minister three months after transplant

After a gap of over three months since his kidney transplant surgery, Arun Jaitley resumed charge as the Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs on Thursday. All finance ministry secretaries, except Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg and DIPAM Secretary Atanu Chakraborty who are not in town, briefed Jaitley after he resumed charge. Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia, Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar and Expenditure Secretary Ajay Narayan Jha met the Finance Minister along with Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman Sushil Chandra and Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) Chairman S Ramesh. Principal Economic Adviser Sanjeev Sanyal also met the minister. Though Jaitley has resumed charge, a team of doctors is monitoring the entry of visitors in his office, a government official said. All visitors are required to sanitise themselves and are removing shoes before entering the finance minister’s office, the official said. Jaitley had undergone a kidney transplant surgery at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on May 14. Railways and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal had then been given the additional charge of the Finance and Corporate Affairs portfolio. On Thursday morning, President Ram Nath Kovind, acting on the advice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, assigned the portfolios to Jaitley. Since his absence from the ministry, Jaitley has been actively writing blogs on many topics including the National Register for Citizens (NRC) in Assam, the no-confidence Motion in Parliament, the Rafale fighter jet deal and on the Goods and Services Tax (GST). After his surgery, he made his first public appearance on July 1 through video conferencing on the function to mark the first anniversary of GST. On August 9, Jaitley had attended Parliament for the first time since his surgery to vote in the elections for the deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha. Source: The Indian Express