Dr. Asim Kumar Dasgupta (born 30 October 1945) is an Indian economist and politician. He served as minister of finance and excise in the Left Front ministry in the

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * '' Our ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the four ...

. He was the MLA of

Khardaha Khardaha is a city and a municipality of North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is near Kolkata and also a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA). History Initially Khardah was a ...

constituency for twenty-four years until 13 May 2011, when he was defeated by

FICCI The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) is a non-governmental trade association and advocacy group based in India. History Established in 1927, on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi by Indian businessman G.D. Birla and ...

secretary general

Amit Mitra Dr. Amit Mitra is an Indian economist and politician and the current Special Advisor to Chief Minister of West Bengal on Finance. Previously he was the Finance, Commerce & Industries Minister of the government of Indian state of West Bengal. ...

by a landslide 26,154 votes in the 2011 Assembly Election of West Bengal. He was one of the 26 ministers who lost his seat this historic defeat of Communist Party of India (Marxist) led Left Front government.

Education and early life

He started his school life in Malda Zilla School and Then he earned his Undergraduate and Postgraduate Degrees in Economics from the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every year, C ...

. Thereafter he secured a doctorate (PhD) in economics from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

. He started his career as a college lecturer and retired as a professor of economics at the

, before moving on to a career in politics.

Role as a minister

After taking over the charge as a minister of finance and excise from

Ashok Mitra Ashok Mitra (10 April 1928 – 1 May 2018) was an Indian economist and Marxist politician. He was a chief economic adviser to the Government of India and later became finance minister of West Bengal and a member of the Rajya Sabha. Early li ...

in 1987, he faced scathing criticism for his so-called 0-deficit budget. The chief minister, Jyoti Basu, used to recommend him to the Chambers of Commerce as the "my US-trained finance minister who will listen to your new ideas" in the first days of liberalization in the 1990s. As the chairman of the empowered committee on value-added tax (VAT), he masterminded the most ambitious tax reform in Indian history since the introduction of the first industry and trading taxes by the British in the early 20th century, by introducing the VAT. He was made the chairman of GST council by the NDA Govt in 2000. Dasgupta admitted in an interview that 80% of the plan had been formulated under his tenure in the GST Council. He resigned from the chairmanship in 2011. GST was finally implemented on 1 July 2017. He is referred to as the architect of India's GST.

Political career

He was elected to the

West Bengal Legislative Assembly The West Bengal Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Indian states and territories of India, state of West Bengal. It is located in the B. B. D. Bagh area of Kolkata, the capital of the state. Members of the Legislative as ...

from Khardah in 1987, 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2006. In 2011 he lost to

at Khardah. In the General elections of 2014, he contested from

Dum Dum Dum Dum is a city and a municipality of Kolkata district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a part of Kolkata urban area and also a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA). Etymology During the 19th ...

, West Bengal but lost to Saugata Roy of TMC.

References

External links

Dr. Asim Dasgupta
–

CPI(M) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxist–Leninist communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in terms of membership and electoral seats and one of the nat ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dasgupta, Asim 1946 births Living people People from English Bazar West Bengal MLAs 1987–1991 West Bengal MLAs 1991–1996 West Bengal MLAs 1996–2001 West Bengal MLAs 2001–2006 West Bengal MLAs 2006–2011 Communist Party of India (Marxist) politicians from West Bengal State cabinet ministers of West Bengal University of Calcutta alumni MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences alumni University of Calcutta faculty Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidates in the 2014 Indian general election