Union Budget 2026-27: No finance secretary, largely new team in charge at FinMin

In a break from the past, the Union Budget 2026-27 is likely to be presented on a Sunday, which coincides with February 1. But equally novel is the fact that this year the Finance Ministry has had no Finance Secretary, who as the senior most Secretary in the Ministry oversees the coordination activities for the Budget.

Seen as the first amongst equals, the Finance Secretary has a crucial rule in the day-to-day functioning of the ministry as well as Budget preparation. Former Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth was also designated as the Finance Secretary, a role he served in until he retired on June 30, 2025. He has since been appointed as the Chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI). Before him, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, who was Revenue Secretary, was designated as the Finance Secretary.

Finance ministry sources note that it is business as usual and individual departments are undertaking their Budget related work and the lack of a finance secretary has not led to any challenges as such.

Some of the key Budget work revolves around the expenditure and revenue proposals and estimates for each ministry and department that is worked on by the departments of economic affairs and expenditure to arrive at the final Budget figures as well as the department of revenue which is in charge of tax collections and proposals.

This year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has a largely new team of officials, who are helping prepare her ninth Union Budget. Financial Services Secretary M Nagaraju, DIPAM Secretary Arunish Chawla and Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran have continued in their roles over the years and worked on Union Budget 2025-26.

But as many as three of the Secretaries in the ministry are new: Revenue Secretary Arvind Shrivastava, Expenditure Secretary V Vualnam and Economic Affairs Secretary Anuradha Prasad.

However, none of these officials are new to the Ministry and have worked in various capacities before their appointment as secretaries. While Shrivastava, who was Additional Secretary in the PMO prior to his current appointment, had also served as Joint Secretary in the Budget Division of the Department of Economic Affairs.

Thakur was Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and had also worked as Joint Secretary in DIPAM. Expenditure Secretary Vualnam has also served as Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Company Affairs and has also served as advisor to the Executive Director in the World Bank.

In the taxation sphere, Central Board of Direct Taxes Chairman Ravi Agrawal has been in office since June 2024 and he has been given a one-year extension until June 30, 2026, which will enable him to oversee the work on the Union Budget and the implementation of the new Income Tax Act.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), however, has a new chief in 1990-batch Indian Revenue Service (Customs & Indirect Taxes) Officer Vivek Chaturvedi, who took charge from December 1, 2025.