West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra was on Friday named the new chairman of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers on Goods and Services Tax.
He will succeed Kerala Finance Minister K M Mani, who had to resign in November over corruption charges.
Mitra, an economist who for long was Secretary General of industry association Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry before joining politics in 2011 and becoming a minister in the Trinamool government in West Bengal, was elected at the meeting of state finance ministers that was also attended by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
He will be the second chairman of the panel, which is tasked with framing rules for roll out of the ambitious Goods and Services Tax regime, which will subsume all indirect taxes and create one national market, from West Bengal.
Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said Mitra was elected head of the Committee at the meeting of state finance ministers on Friday.
Mitra, who couldn't attend the meeting as he was unwell, was informed about the decision of the committee over phone by Jaitley.
The head of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers has always been from an opposition ruled state.
Communist Party of India-Marxist's Asim Dasgupta held the post when United Progressive Alliance was in power.
Sushil Modi from Bihar succeed him during the UPA regime.
In July 2013, Jammu and Kashmir Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather was appointed chairman.
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