KEY FINANCE PANEL EXPANDED

With digital transactions taking off and at the same time growing concerns about the safety of personal data, the government has reconstituted the Financial Stability and Development Council ( FSDC) by including secretaries from the revenue department as well as the ministry of information technology.

The FSDC is chaired by the Union finance minister and comprises the RBI governor, Sebi chairman, finance secretary, and secretaries in the departments of economic affairs, financial services and corporate affairs. The FSDC also has chief economic adviser and chairpersons of insurance regulator IRDAI, pension regulator PFRDA and Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board as members.

According to sources, the move to include revenue secretary in FSDC follows increasing safeguards being put in place by the department to check tax evasion in both direct and indirect taxes. The inclusion of secretary, information technology, in the FSDC comes at a time when there is increasing public gaze on the issue of data protection and privacy.

Last year the government had set up a committee under Justice B. N. Srikrishna to provide a framework for securing personal data in the increasingly digitised economy as also addressing privacy concerns and building safeguards against data breaches.