Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, Revenue Secretary Arvind Srivastava, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) Chairman Sanjay Agarwal, along with other board members, were also present at the inauguration

In a post on the social media platform X, Sitharaman’s office emphasised that officers across the country must embrace three key imperatives to enhance their effectiveness

She said, to be effective, all enforcement agencies and officers must adopt three key imperatives: they should not see enforcement and facilitation as opposing forces, conduct investigations holistically with a focus on the bigger picture rather than isolated infractions and ensure that enforcement operations are grounded not only in data but also in ethical principles

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also emphasised that the Prime Minister’s mantra of ‘Reform, Perform and Transform’ should be kept in mind to sustain ongoing progress

She further stated that the government’s priority is to ensure that the most currency in circulation consists of lower denominations, while promoting greater awareness of digital transfers. Responding to a question about the future of the Rs 500 note, Sitharaman said, “We are making every effort to ensure that currency in lower denominations is used much more than higher denominations, as the Rs 2,000 note is almost completely out of circulation, except for possibly 0.02 percent, which is still outside. The rest have been deposited in banks”

In recent years, India has experienced a remarkable surge in digital transactions, reflecting a major step forward in its journey towards a cashless economy. Leading this digital payment revolution is the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which reached a record-breaking 16.73 billion transactions in December 2024