Govt may raise dividend target to Rs 70k cr from RBI, banks, FIs in Budget

Having reaped rich dividends from the Reserve Bank in the current financial year, the government will be looking forward to receiving about Rs 70,000 crore from the central bank and the financial institutions (FIs) in the next financial year.

In the interim Budget to be unveiled in the Lok Sabha on February 1 by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, sources said, the government would peg receipts from dividends from financial institutions at much higher level than Rs 48,000 crore estimated for the current fiscal.

The current financial year estimate has already exceeded the Budget target as RBI paid a dividend of Rs 87,416 crore.

With public sector banks and financial institutions posting good quarterly numbers during the current financial year, the dividend payout by them in the coming year would be higher compared to this year.

So, it would be feasible to expect about Rs 70,000 crore as dividend payout from RBI and financial institutions in FY'25, sources said.

The government had pegged a 17 per cent higher dividend at Rs 48,000 crore from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), public sector banks and financial institutions in 2023-24.

However, this target was very much surpassed with the transfer of Rs 87,416 crore as surplus to the central government for 2022-23 by the Reserve Bank.

During 2023-24, the Reserve Bank transferred a surplus of Rs 87,416.22 crore to the central government which is higher than both the amount transferred last year (Rs 30,307.45 crore) and the budgeted amount under Dividend/Surplus transfer of Reserve Bank of India, Nationalised Banks and Financial Institutions in the Union Budget 2023-24 (Rs 48,000 crore).

In the previous financial year, the government mobilised Rs 40,953 crore from RBI and public sector financial institutions.

The higher dividend from banks and financial institutions, apart from higher tax mobilisation, would help achieve a fiscal deficit glide path.

As per the fiscal consolidation roadmap, the government aims to reduce the fiscal deficit to below 4.5 per cent by 2025-26 from an estimated 5.9 per cent of GDP in 2023-24.

The government, as per the roadmap, is required to bring down the fiscal deficit to 5.4 per cent in the next financial year beginning April 1, 2024.