RBI approves payment of Rs 30,307 cr dividend to govt for FY22

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved the transfer of Rs 30,307 crore as surplus to the central government for the accounting year 2021-22. The central bank has also decided to maintain the contingency risk buffer at 5.50 per cent. 

The decisions were made at the 596th meeting of the central board of directors of the Reserve Bank of India. The meeting was held on Friday in Mumbai under the chairmanship of Shaktikanta Das, who is the governor of the central bank.

The board in its meeting reviewed the current economic situation, global and domestic challenges and the impact of recent geopolitical developments. The board also discussed the working of the Reserve Bank during the year April 2021 - March 2022 and approved the annual report and accounts of the Reserve Bank for the accounting year 2021-22.

"The Board approved the transfer of Rs 30,307 crore as surplus to the Central Government for the accounting year 2021-22, while deciding to maintain the Contingency Risk Buffer at 5.50%," noted RBI in an official statement. 

However, the dividend for FY22, which will be transferred in FY23 is much lower than what the government had estimated in Budget 2022. The government was expecting a dividend of Rs 73,948 crore from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and public sector banks and financial institutions in 2022-23.

Deputy governors Mahesh Kumar Jain, Dr Michael Debabrata Patra, M. Rajeshwar Rao, T. Rabi Sankar and other directors of the central board, viz. Satish K. Marathe, S. Gurumurthy, Revathy Iyer and Prof Sachin Chaturvedi attended the meeting.

Ajay Seth, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs and Sanjay Malhotra, Secretary, Department of Financial Services also attended the meeting.

Last year in May, RBI declared a dividend of Rs 99,122 crore for the nine-month period (July 2020 to March 2021). The dividend was paid for that period as RBI aligned its financial year with the government's financial year.

(With PTI inputs)

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