Reserve Bank of India transfer tops govt's non-tax revenue source

Dividend, or surplus transfer, from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has become one of the biggest sources of non-tax revenues for the Centre. In the last seven years, the Union government received a record Rs 5.45 trillion from the RBI at an annualised rate of nearly Rs 78,000 crore.
 
In comparison, the Manmohan Singh government earned about Rs 99,000 crore in its first seven years from FY05 to FY11. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government earned about Rs 2 trillion from the RBI during its 10-year rule at an annualised rate of Rs 20,000 crore. During the six-year NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led, this amount was about Rs 48,000 crore. The RBI dividend accounted for nearly a third of the Centre’s non-tax revenues in the last seven years, as against 16 per cent during UPA rule.
 
Earlier, the Centre earned more from equity dividend of commercial public sector companies such as Oil & Natural Gas Corporation, Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Coal India, State Bank of India and Life Insurance Corporation. However, this changed as the RBI began to transfer nearly 100 per cent of its annual surplus to the government at the beginning of FY14, based on recommendations of Y H Malegam Technical Committee.