Mr. Shaktikanta Das assumed charge as the 25th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on December 12, 2018. Mr. Das is a career civil servant with 37 years of distinguished service, primarily in the areas of finance, taxation, investment and infrastructure. He brings with him a unique combination of experience in both policy formulation and implementation at the highest levels of Government of India. He has served as Revenue Secretary and as Secretary, Economic Affairs, which are the highest positions in the departments of Revenue and Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Finance, Government of India. In these positions, he was responsible for conceptualisation and formulation of key policies in the areas of economic reforms, fiscal and monetary policy, financial markets and investment policy.
Mr. Das has also served as a Member of the Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India and actively participated in Board deliberations and rendered advice in the areas of Central Banking. He was also on the Board of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the regulator for capital markets in India.
It was during his tenure as Secretary, Economic Affairs that the Government of India undertook enactment for introducing flexible inflation targeting framework for the Central Bank and constituted the Monetary Policy Committee. This, significantly enhanced the depth and transparency of Central Bank’s interest rate setting process.
A major structural gap in the corporate and banking sectors in India had been the absence of a strong regulatory and legal framework for dealing with stressed corporate balance-sheets and stressed assets held by the banks. It was under the stewardship of Mr. Das that a modern bankruptcy legislation, namely, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), a legislative framework for resolution of stressed assets was put in place. This new framework has proved to be a game changer and has ushered in a transformation in credit culture and resolution of stressed assets.
As Revenue Secretary, Mr. Das played a key role in taking forward India’s agenda of introducing a nation-wide Goods and Service Tax (GST) which replaced a plethora of more than 20 taxes levied by Central and State Governments. Introduction of GST has converted the country of 1.25 billion population spread across 29 States into one nation, one market and one tax. This was a key reform which had been pending for about a decade.
Mr. Das also played key role in the formulation and implementation of Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) in taxation matters through multi-lateral and bi-lateral treaties/agreements. He negotiated an agreement with the Swiss government by which the Swiss government agreed to share certain bank account related information that enabled India to deal with cases of unauthorised accounts held by certain Indian tax payers abroad. Mr. Das was also responsible for re-negotiating India’s Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement with Mauritius which eliminated possibility of round tripping of funds and promoted greater degree of due diligence. It was during his tenure that India negotiated a special law to deal with unaccounted money/assets held by Indians abroad.
Mr. Das was also responsible for other economic reforms undertaken by India in recent years. These include substantial liberalisation of India’s Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) regime, reforms in Government subsidies, promotion of digital payments, etc.
Mr. Das was directly associated with preparation of eight annual Budgets of Government of India and four Budgets at the provincial level.
Mr. Das has also served as India’s Alternate Governor at the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), New Development Bank (NDB) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). He represented India in several international fora like the IMF, G20, BRICS and SAARC. He has led Indian delegations for a number of bilateral discussions with several countries. He has been a think tank voice from the Government of India delivering keynote addresses and making presentations at major policy conclaves and international seminars.
Prior to his appointment as Governor, Reserve Bank of India, Mr. Das was India’s G20 Sherpa and Member, Fifteenth Finance Commission. As G20 Sherpa, he was involved in international economic dialogue. As Member, Fifteenth Finance Commission, Mr. Das dealt with issues of sharing of central tax revenues between the Centre and the States as well as allocation of States’ share among each of the States (vertical and horizontal devolution of the Central Government tax resources).
