Sharp rise in RBI provisions

Provisions made by the Reserve Bank of India zoomed to Rs 13,190 crore in 2016-17 from Rs 1,000 crore in the previous year, RBI said on Wednesday. “In 2016-17, a provision of Rs 50 crore was made for capital contribution in Reserve Bank Information Technology Pvt. Ltd. (ReBIT) and transferred to Asset Development Fund (ADF) and a provision of Rs 13,140 crore was made for transfer to Contingency Fund (CF),” RBI said.

The net transfer of profits to the Government has fallen drastically during this year by 53.5 per cent. The main reason for the fall in the profits is prolonged period of LAF operations in the absorption mode which caused a net loss of Rs 17,400 crore.

The sharp rise in printing cost and provisions contributed to the big fall in the surplus transferred to the government. The demonetisation exercise has resulted in net loss of seigniorage to the RBI, SBI Chief Economic Adviser Soumya Kanti Ghosh said.