Sushil Chandra, chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), has been appointed Election Commissioner.
His appointment takes effect from the day he assumes charge, said a statement from the ministry of law and justice. Chandra’s term as CBDT chief ends on 31 May, 2019.
Chandra will join Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa to man the constitutional body ahead of national polls due by April-May. Chandra has been heading the CBDT, the apex direct tax policy making body, since November 2016 and had earlier received two extensions in that post.
At the CBDT, Chandra has been leading the government’s efforts to unearth black money, plug loopholes in the laws that were abused by tax evaders and fine-tune personal income tax norms to give relief to individual taxpayers. Under Chandra, the income tax department managed to make investigations into tax evasion non-intrusive by extensive use of technology and data mining.