The Bimal Jalan-panel, which is looking into the size of the capital reserves the RBI should hold, failed to submit its report on Wednesday because of differences in opinion, officials said.
The six-member panel, under former RBI governor Jalan, was originally supposed to submit the report in April. But it got delayed for the third time because of a lack of consensus. The committee will meet one more time and expects to finalise the report by the end of this month.
RBI governor Shaktikanta Das had last week said the panel would submit its report very soon.
The panel was appointed on December 26, 2018, to review the Economic Capital Framework (ECF) of the Reserve Bank after the finance ministry wanted the RBI to follow global best practices and transfer more surplus to the government. The RBI has over Rs 9.6 lakh crore surplus capital with it. “The ECF panel will meet one more time and will submit the report by month-end,” an official told reporters here after the meeting.
The ECF panel was mandated to submit its report to the RBI within 90 days of its first meeting, which took place on January 8. Following this, the panel was given a three-month extension.
Differences between the government and the central bank over the amount of reserves the RBI should hold was one of the reasons that led to the resignation of former RBI governor Urjit Patel.
The government was of the view that the buffer of 28 per cent of gross assets maintained by the RBI was well above the global norm of 14 per cent. Following this, the RBI board in its meeting on November 19, 2018, decided to constitute a panel to decide on the appropriate size of the reserves.
Asked about the reason for the delay in the finalisation of the report, the official said, “There may be differences of opinion, but that is being discussed.”
The other members of the panel include Rakesh Mohan, former deputy governor of the RBI, as vice-chairman; finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg; RBI deputy-governor N.S. Vishwanathan, and two RBI central board members — Bharat Doshi and Sudhir Mankad.
