Time To Let Go: Government Asks RBI To Transfer Rs 28,000 Crore Worth Of Previous Year Surpluses

The government has asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to transfer in full the surplus generated over the past two years, reports BloombergQuint.

“The government requested the Reserve Bank of India to provide an interim surplus during the ongoing financial year 2018-19 from the amount withheld in the two previous fiscals,” said Union Minister of State for Finance, P Radhakrishnan, in the Parliament.

RBI had transferred a surplus of Rs 13,140 crore to its contingency fund in 2016-17 and Rs 14,190 crore in 2017-18. Economic Affairs Secretary Subash Chandra Garg had stated on 1 February (2019) that the government expects an interim dividend of Rs 28,000 crores from RBI. He could be referring to the transfer of previous years’ surpluses as interim dividend.

The Central bank has already transferred the interim dividend of Rs 40,000 crore in the ongoing financial year (FY19). Thus, if RBI agrees to the government's current requests, the total surplus transfer for 2018-19 will stand at Rs 68,000 crore.

From Other Sources

To meet its revised fiscal deficit targets for the next year (FY20), it is reported that the government intends to mobilise Rs 82,911.56 crore as dividend or surplus from the RBI, nationalised banks and other financial institutions during 2019-20.

Government is finalising a new rule that would mandate regulatory and autonomous bodies like the SEBI, IRDAI to transfer their respective surplus funds to the exchequer.

Also Read: RBI Sitting On ‘Excess Capital’, Can Easily Transfer Over Rs 1 Lakh Crore To Government, Claims Report