RBI to transfer Rs.66,000 crore surplus to government

Mumbai, Aug 14: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced that it will transfer its surplus profit of Rs.65,896 crore to the central government. "The central board of directors of the Reserve Bank of India, at its meeting held today (Thursday), approved the transfer of surplus amounting to Rs.658.96 billion for the year ended June 30, 2015 to the Government of India," the RBI said in a statement, following a meeting of its central board chaired by governor Raghuram Rajan. India's central bank, whose accounting year goes from July to June had, last year, transferred Rs.52,679 crore of its surplus profit to the government. Besides the government nominee directors on the central board - secretary department of financial services Hasmukh Adhia and the additional secretary in the department of economic affairs, Ajay Tyagi, the board meeting was also attended by chief economic adviser (CEA) Arvind Subramanian. At its bi-monthly monetary policy review last week, the RBI kept its repo rate, at which it lends short-term to commercial banks, unchanged at 7.25 percent.