RBI board talks constitution of monetary policy panel

The Board discussed two specific areas of operations, namely, the Reserve Bank's budget and constitution of Monetary Policy Committee

The Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday discussed the contours of setting up the monetary policy committee (MPC), a panel with the mandate to decide the benchmark interest rates.

The board, which met in Bengaluru after seven years, discussed two areas of operations: RBI’s Budget and constitution of the MPC, the regulator said.

The RBI governor will head the MPC. Three members will be from RBI. Besides the governor, there will be a deputy governor and an executive director from RBI.

The other three members will be nominated by the government after recommendations of a search-cum-selection committee, headed by the Cabinet secretary.

The search panel will also comprise the economic affairs secretary and the RBI governor.

Each MPC member will have one vote, with the governor having an additional vote in case of a tie.

RBI said its board has reviewed the macroeconomic developments and activities of the Board for Supervision and Regulation of the Payment and Settlement Systems for the year ended March 31.

It dwelled on the draft Annual Report for 2015-16. RBI follows a financial year starting July that ends in June of the next calendar year.

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan chaired the meeting attended by Shaktikanta Das, the economic affairs secretary in the finance ministry and the government nominee on the Central Board.

Four deputy governors — Urjit Patel, R Gandhi, S S Mundra and N S Vishwanathan also attended the meeting.

The other directors of the Central Board present at the meeting were Nachiket Mor, Damodar Acharya, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Bharat N Doshi and Sudhir Mankad.