Senior IAS officer Arun Goyal has been appointed as Additional Secretary in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council. The Council, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, is mandated to decide on tax rate, exempted goods and the threshold limit. The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved Goyal’s appointment against the newly created post, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training said.

Goyal, a 1985 batch IAS officer of Union Territory cadre, is at present working as Additional Secretary, Project Monitoring Group, Cabinet Secretariat.

The Union Cabinet had recently approved appointment of the Secretary (Revenue) as the ex-officio Secretary to the GST council and inclusion of the chairperson, Central Board of Excise and Customs, as a permanent invitee. The Cabinet had also approved creation of one post of Additional Secretary and four posts of Commissioner in the secretariat.