Ministry of Finance concerns itself with taxation, financial legislation, financial institutions, capital markets, centre and state finances, and the Union Budget.
Arun Jaitley is the current Finance Minister of India. R. K. Shanmukham Chetty was the first Finance Minister of independent India.
The following cadre controlling authority:
- Civil Services
- Indian Revenue Service,
- Indian Economic Service,
- Indian Cost Accounts Service,
- Indian Civil Accounts Service
STRUCTURE
The Union Finance Ministry of India comprises five departments:
Department of Economic Affairs: A principal responsibility of this Department is the preparation of the Union Budget annually (excluding the Railway Budget).
Functions:
- Formulation and monitoring of macroeconomic policies, including issues relating to fiscal policy and public finance, inflation, public debt management and the functioning of Capital Market including Stock Exchange
- Monitoring and raising of external resources through multilateral and bilateral Official Development Assistance, sovereign borrowings abroad, foreign investments and monitoring foreign exchange resources including balance of payments;
Department of Expenditure
1. The principal activities of the Department include pre-sanction appraisal of major schemes/projects (both Plan and non-Plan expenditure),
2. Handling the bulk of the Central budgetary resources transferred to States, implementation of the recommendations of the Finance and Central Pay Commissions,
3. Overseeing the expenditure management in the Central Ministries/Departments through the interface with the Financial Advisors and the administration of the Financial Rules / Regulations / Orders through monitoring of Audit comments/observations,
4. Preparation of Central Government Accounts,
5. Managing the financial aspects of personnel management in the Central Government, assisting Central Ministries/Departments in controlling the costs and prices of public services, assisting organisational re-engineering through review of staffing patterns and O&M studies and reviewing systems and procedures to optimize outputs and outcomes of public expenditure.
Department of Revenue
It exercises control in respect of matters relating to all the Direct and Indirect Union Taxes through two statutory Boards namely, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC).Each Board is headed by a Chairman who is also ex officio Special Secretary to the Government of India (Secretary level).
The CBDT has six Members and the CBEC has five Members. The Members are also ex officio Secretaries to the Government of India. Members of CBDT are as follows:
1. Member (Income Tax)
2. Member (Legislation and Computerisation)
3. Member (Revenue)
4. Member (Personnel & Vigilance)
5. Member (Investigation)
6. Member (Audit & Judicial)
Department of Financial Services
Covers Banks, Insurance and Financial Services provided by various government agencies and private corporations. It also covers pension reforms and Industrial Finance and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise. It started the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana in 2014.
Department of Disinvestments
The department took up all the functions of the erstwhile ministry which broadly was responsible for systematic policy approach to disinvestment and privatisation of Public Sector Units (PSUs).
