The Centre on Thursday extended Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian’s tenure by two more years. He was appointed to the post in October 2014 for a three-year term, but will now hold the office till October 2019, The Indian Express reported.

Subramanian has been Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s right hand man and is believed to have been highly involved in drafting the Goods and Services Tax Act. He had unveiled the Economic Survey on January 31, in which he focused on India’s GDP growth and a Universal Basic Income scheme. On demonetisation, Subramanian had noted in the survey that its impact on “real GDP growth” would only be temporary.

Subramanian had been criticised by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in June last year. Swamy had questioned the economist’s stand on Intellectual Property Rights and also said that Subramanian was responsible for the Congress’ stand on the GST. But Jaitley had come to his defence, saying it was “an unfair and false attack on a disciplined civil servant in the Finance Ministry”.