Centre not seeking Rs 3.6 lakh cr. from RBI, says official

TIL Desk/Business/Mumbai/ Confident of meeting fiscal deficit target, the government on Friday clarified it is not seeking transfer of Rs 3.6 lakh crore reserves from the RBI and the only proposal under discussion is to fix appropriate economic capital framework of the central bank. “Lot of misinformed speculation is going around in media. Government’s fiscal math is completely on track.

There is no proposal to ask RBI to transfer Rs 3.6 or 1 lakh crore, as speculated,” economic affairs secretary Subhash Chandra Garg tweeted. On the fiscal road map, he said, the government will stick to the fiscal deficit target of 3.3 per cent for the current financial year. “Government’s FD (fiscal deficit) in FY 2013-14 was 5.1 per cent. From 2014-15 onwards, government has succeeded in bringing it down substantially. “We will end the FY 2018-19 with FD of 3.3 per cent.

“Government has actually foregone Rs 70,000 crore of budgeted market borrowing this year,” he said. Garg further said the only proposal “under discussion is to fix appropriate economic capital framework of RBI”. The clarification comes amidst report that the government is seeking transfer of at least a third of Reserve Bank’s Rs 9.6 lakh crore reserves. Besides, it has also been pointed out that the government wants the RBI to part with most of its profit as dividend.