P Chidambaram's return to Finance Ministry coincides with key changes in the bureaucracy

NEW DELHI: P Chidambaram's return to the finance ministry will coincide with a few key changes in the bureaucracy.

The department of economic affairs, the nerve centre of economic policymaking, will have Arvind Mayaram as its new secretary from Wednesday.

Mayaram, a 1978 IAS officer from the Rajasthan cadre, has already worked with Chidambaram as a joint secretary in charge of infrastructure.

The ministry will get a new chief economic adviser with Kaushik Basu's term coming to an end on Tuesday. Raghuram Rajan, currently honorary advisor to the PM, is expected to succeed him.

Both the tax bodies - direct and indirect - will have new heads from Wednesday, and both with woman head for the first time.

Poonam Kishor Saxena, now a member looking after legislation and computerisation, is likely to succeed Laxman Das as the head of the Central Board of Direct Taxes. Saxena is a 1974 batch Indian Revenue Service official and will play an important role in designing direct tax policies that are expected to see a complete overhaul under new the finance minister.

Praveen Mahajan has taken additional charge of chairperson, Central Board of Excise and Customs, from S K Goel who retired on Tuesday. Mahajan is expected to play a key role in pushing the goods and services tax.