The contingency reserves (CR) and asset development reserves (ADR) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has moved up to a combined 9.9 per cent of total assets in 2000-01 compared with 9.2 per cent in the previous year.
The RBI wants to push the reserves up to 12 per cent by 2005 in phases.
The balance in the contingency reserve, which has been created to enable the RBI to absorb unexpected and unforeseen contingencies, has gone up from Rs 29,911.56 crore as on June 30, 2000 to Rs 36,514.13 crore as on June 30, 2001.
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In 2000-01, an amount of Rs 704.78 crore was transferred from income to the ADR, which was created by the RBI in 1997-98 to meet the internal capital expenditure and make investments in subsidiaries and associate institutions, raising its level from Rs 3,167.85 crore as on June 30, 2000 to Rs 3,872.63 crore as on June 30, 2001.
In 2000-01, there was an accretion of Rs 1,516.01 crore to the exchange fluctuation reserve (EFR) raising the balance to Rs 29,124.44 crore as on June 30, 2001 from Rs 27,608.43 crore as on June 30, 2000.
This was mainly on account of appreciation in the value of foreign currency assets.
The EFR as on June-end 2001 was equivalent to 14.2 per cent of the foreign currency assets and gold holdings of the Reserve Bank as against 16.8 per cent at the end of June 2000.
The balance in the exchange equalisation account, which is utilised to meet exchange losses on an accrual basis in respect of liabilities under schemes involving exchange guarantees provided by the RBI in respect of funds parked by the Indian financial institutions, as on June 30, 2001 stood at Rs 49.46 crore (Rs 791.27 crore as on June 30, 2000).