Govt seeks additional Rs 13,000 crore surplus from RBI

The government has sought additional surplus of Rs 13,000 crore from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), said an ET Now tweet today. The development has surfaced when RBI’s dividend is stated to have more than halved for the fiscal year FY17. 

An ET Now tweet on Friday said, “Govt said that it has sought Rs 13,000 cr from @RBI as additional surplus: Agencies.”
 

#JUSTNOW | Govt said that it has sought Rs 13,000 cr from @RBI as additional surplus: Agencies pic.twitter.com/NQR9Rq7eLh

— ET NOW (@ETNOWlive) March 9, 2018

In FY17, RBI transferred a surplus of Rs 30,659 crore to the government, which was nearly half of what the RBI has been earning and transferring to the government over the past few years.  This amount is stated to be the lowest transfer of surplus by the RBI to the government since 2013-- Rs 33,010 crore were transferred to the government.
 
RBI in past three years has seen increase in its surplus. It transferred Rs 65,880 crore in 2016, followed by Rs 65,900 crore in 2015, and Rs 52,680 crore in the year 2014.

Economic Secretary Affairs Subhash Chandra Garg in PTI report on November 19, 2017 said, "There is no proposal at this stage to ask for any special dividend. What is being discussed is to only ask for what the RBI earned this year but did not distribute. That is about Rs 13,000 crore. That's what the government has suggested the Reserve Bank to transfer."

Also in a written reply to Lok Sabha Minister of State for Finance Pon Radhakrishnan said,  "The government had sought Rs 13,000 crore in addition to the surplus of Rs 30,659 crore transferred by RBI," reported in PTI. 

Radhakrishnan also highlighted that, additional fund was sought as per the Malegam Committee's recommendations of transfer of the RBI's entire surplus to the government.

Total dividend from the Reserve Bank of India, nationalised banks and financial institutions is estimated to be around Rs 54,817 crore for FY19, slightly lower than the revised estimated of FY18, which is at Rs 51,623 crores.

Earlier, the government had estimated Rs 74,900 crore dividend, and the reason behind lowering the target now is due to low dividend from RBI.

Analysts at IDFC Securities said, "This indicates that the government is expecting that banks will not park too much additional money with RBI with credit demand picking up."

As per the RBI Act, 1934, the central bank is needed to pay the government its surplus after making provisions for bad and doubtful debts, depreciation in assets and, contribution to staff and superannuation fund among others.