RBI surplus jumps 43.6 pc to Rs 61,804 cr in FY'13

The Reserve Bank today said its surplus grew by a whopping 43.6 per cent to Rs 61,804 crore in the last fiscal, helping its balance sheet expand by 8.2 per cent to Rs 2,390,700 crore.
The balance sheet growth was primarily helped by a 14 per cent uptick in the apex bank's holding of domestic securities apart from growth in loans and advances as well as foreign assets, the RBI said in its annual report for FY'13.
Accordingly, the central bank, which follows a July- June accounting year, said "in FY13 its domestic assets rose to 36.2 per cent from 34.4 per cent in FY12, while foreign assets came down to 63.8 per cent from 65.7 per cent."

The balance sheet saw a net addition of Rs 1,81,800 crore during the year, which helped it more than double the surplus payout to the Government to Rs 33,010 crore.
"After appropriation to the reserve funds, the surplus payable to Government amounted to Rs 33,010 crore, the largest ever surplus transfer in absolute terms," the report said.
Its total income, before transfer to contingency reserve and asset development reserve and excluding unrealised gains and losses directly adjusted in relevant accounts, stood at Rs 74,358 crore, a growth of 39.8 per cent over FY'12. Total expenditure rose 23.8 per cent to Rs 12,549 crore from Rs 10,137 crore a year ago.

"On the assets side, the growth was driven by an increase in the Reserve Bank's holding of domestic securities, loans and advances as well as foreign assets. The increase in domestic assets by 14 per cent was mainly on account of purchases of Government securities worth Rs 91,930 crore during the year through open market operations," it said.
"The increase in foreign currency assets by 5.2 per cent was mainly due to valuation effect on the portfolio arising out of steep depreciation of the rupee against the dollar. The value of gold reserves, however, fell 11.3 per cent on account of decline in international gold prices."

On the liabilities side, RBI said the expansion of the balance sheet was driven by the rise in notes in circulation by 8.9 per cent, besides the accretion to the currency and gold revaluation account by 9.9 per cent.