Reserve Bank to transfer close to Rs 1 lakh crore surplus to government

New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday decided to transfer a surplus of Rs 99,122 crore to the Central government.

The decision was taken at 589th meeting of the RBI’s central board of directors. “With the change in the Reserve Bank’s accounting year to April to March (earlier July to June), the board discussed the working of the Reserve Bank of India during the transition period of nine months (July 2020 to March 2021) and approved the annual report and accounts of the Reserve Bank for the transition period,” according to an official statement.

“The board also approved the transfer of Rs 99,122 crore as surplus to the Central government for the accounting period of nine months ended March 31, 2021 (July 2020 to March 2021),” it said.

44% of surplus last year, 1.23 lakh crore in 2019 given to Govt

As the manager of government finances, the RBI pays a dividend every year from its surplus profit. Last year, it transferred 44 per cent of its surplus to the Central government at Rs 57,128 crore. In 2019, RBI transferred Rs 1,23,414 crore surplus to the government.

The board in its meeting also reviewed the current economic situation, global and domestic challenges and recent policy measures taken by the RBI to mitigate the adverse impact of Covid-19’s second wave on the economy.

Deputy Governors Mahesh Kumar Jain, Michael Debabrata Patra, M Rajeshwar Rao, T Rabi Sankar and other directors N Chandrasekaran, Satish K. Marathe, S Gurumurthy, Revathy Iyer and Sachin Chaturvedi attended the meeting.

Debasish Panda, Secretary at the Department of Financial Services, and Ajay Seth, Secretary at the Department of Economic Affairs, were also present.