The Reserve Bank of India’s forex operations are driven by consideration of stability of exchange rate, Das said.
The governor had, in his earlier statement, said that “there are indications that India’s foreign exchange reserves have already crossed $600 billion.” He added that it gives the central bank “great confidence” to combat challenges from global spillovers.
“Emerging market economies have to build their own buffers, RBI is no exception,” Das said.
He added that the surplus transfer to the government — Rs 99,122 crore for the nine months ended March 31, 2021 — is purely an accounting issue.
RBI Deputy Governor T Rabi Shankar attributed the the higher than expected surplus to the decrease in risk capital provisioning.
Balance sheet increase in FY20 was Rs 12.37 lakh crore, so the increase in provision for risk was higher, Shakar said. In FY21 on the other hand, the increase was just Rs 3.64 lakh crore, so transfer of surplus funds to contingent funds has also gone down, he said.
