President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday directed to assign the portfolios of the Minister of Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs to Arun Jaitley.
Announcing his return, a communique from the Rashtrapati Bhavan read, “The President of India, as advised by the Prime Minister, has directed to assign the portfolios of the Minister of Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs to Shri Arun Jaitley.”
Railway Minister Piyush Goyal was holding the additional charge of the Finance and Corporate Affairs portfolio after Jaitley underwent the procedure at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on May 14. Since his surgery, Jaitley has been staying in a controlled environment as per the doctors’ advice. He, however, attended the Rajya Sabha for the election of Deputy Chairman on August 9
As interim finance minister, Goyal had chaired two meetings of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council.
However, the opposition party, especially the Congress, had been building up a row of criticism over the handling of the economy after since Indian rupee touched 70 mark to a U.S. dollar for the first time ever and crude prices shook up too. Moreover, a draft report on the back series data of GDP growth that claimed UPA years saw the highest ever decadal growth, had further added to the government’s problems.
