Will take necessary steps to ensure liquidity: Subbarao

The Reserve Bank of India has been buying back government securities to ease liquidity.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday said it would take all the necessary steps to ease liquidity constraints in the money market.

RBI has been buying back government securities to ease the liquidity situation, after having raised key policy rates 13 times since March 2010. So far, RBI has bought back securities worth about Rs 25,000 through open market operations (OMOs). Also, upcoming advance tax payments by companies are likely to add to the liquidity constraint in the market, given companies have to pay advance taxes for the third quarter by December 15.

“In order to ease the situation, so far, we have carried out open market operations for Rs 25,000 crore. We would take all necessary steps to see that liquidity is eased. We are aware of the advance tax payment situation. We will take that into account while assessing the liquidity situation,” said RBI Governor, D Subbarao, at a press conference after its central board meeting in Kolkata.

According to RBI’s guidance, liquidity should remain remain between plus/minus one per cent of net demand and time liabilities, which translates into about Rs 60,000 crore. “In the last few weeks, it has gone beyond that, which means there is liquidity constraint across the system, or for certain banks,” Subbarao said.

In its last policy statement, RBI had hinted at a pause in its hawkish policy stance.

“Further rate action, whether it would be paused, depends upon any unanticipated development. Certa-inly, supporting growth remains our objective,” Subbarao said.

Since November 24, banks have been drawing an average of Rs 1 lakh crore daily from RBI, at a repo rate of 8.5 per cent under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF). “Whatever instruments we have, OMO and LAF are there...If anything else is required, we would do that for liquidity management,” he added.

There has been a debate over the use of the cash reserve ratio (CRR) as a tool to manage liquidity. The CRR, currently at six per cent, is the proportion of deposits banks need to set aside with the central bank as cash.

“The consideration that goes into a CRR cut, or CRR action, has to be kept in mind. The consideration fundamentally is CRR is not just a liquidity tool, but also a monetary policy signal. And, we are, as of now, still in a situation in which inflationary pressures are high. For the moment, while we want to address the liquidity situation, we don’t want to do it in a way that compromises our monetary stance. So, the use of these tactical measures like OMOs is clearly the way we are going to go,” Subir Gokarn, deputy governor, RBI had said at the bankers' meeting yesterday.

On the possibility of a cut in CRR in the next RBI policy statement, Subbarao was cautious, saying, “I cannot really react to what the market is expecting outside the context of the policy. Whatever we might decide, on the CRR or otherwise, you would have to wait for our mid-quarter statement.” RBI would meet on December 16 to review its monetary policy. To ease inflation, RBI has been raising key policy rates over the last one year.