Arun Jaitley on Friday resumed as the Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister after over three weeks break from work due to health reasons.

A communiqué from the President House said that as advised by the Prime Minister it assigns the portfolios of the Minister of Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs to Arun Jaitley.

Jaitley was in US for surgery from January 13 to February 9. In his absence Railway Minister Piyush Goyal was given charge for the two ministries. Goyal had also presented the Interim Budget. This was second time when Railway Minister was given additional charge.

“Resumed work at the Ministry of Finance today (Friday). Thankful to Piyush Goyal who discharged the responsibility at the MoF diligently & competently,” Jaitley said in a tweet.

Jaitley begun the day with crucial meeting of Cabinet Committee of Security (CCS) chaired by the Prime Minister. Later he briefed the media about the decision taken by CCS including withdrawal of Most Favoured Nation status to Pakistan. Then, he went to party office to brief the office bearers about the latest development before reaching North Block.

Next week (starting February 18) will be very busy for the Minister as he is scheduled to address the Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). It is customary post-budget meeting where he is expected to brief the board about various provisions as mentioned in the interim budget. On Wednesday, he will chair 33rd meeting of the GST Council which is expected to consider lowering GST for housing sector and also some relief for the exporters.

Jaitley is also the publicity head of the BJP for the upcoming general elections.

This was his second medical off within a year. Earlier, he had undergone kidney transplant on May 14, 2018. He had stopped attending office at the beginning of April last year due to his kidney ailment and was back in North Block on August 23, 2018. Even then, Goyal had manned the Ministry for about 100 days.

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