Country facing financial stress, says former PM Deve Gowda

Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda said on Thursday the country is facing financial stress and noted that never in the past money was drawn from the Reserve Bank of India.

"There is financial stress in the country. For the first time, money has been drawn from the RBI. So far as I know never ever in the past, money was drawn from the RBI," Gowda said at a press conference at the party office here.

He was referring to the RBI's decision to transfer Rs 1.76 lakh crore of dividend and surplus reserve to the government.

The amount comprises Rs 1,23,414 crore of surplus for the year 2018-19 and Rs 52,637 crore of excess provisions identified as per the revised Economic Capital Framework (ECF), RBI said in a statement on Monday.

Gowda said, "Whatever the previous RBI governors (Urjit Patel and Raghuram Rajan) and deputy governor (Viral Acharya) have spoken is already there in the public domain."