RBI balance sheet expands by 30 per cent in FY20 to Rs 533.27 trillion

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) balance sheet expanded by 30.02 per cent to Rs 533.47 trillion in 2019-20 (FY20), on growth in foreign exchange reserves.

On June 30, 2019 (FY19), the size of the bank’s balance sheet was Rs 410.29 trillion. RBI’s financial year commences in July and ends in June next year. But the current year (FY21) will end in March 2021 to enable a transition to start its financial year from April to end in March. So FY22 would run from April 2021 to March 2022.

The gross total income for the year 2019-20 amounted to Rs 1.497 trillion as compared to Rs 1.930 trillion in 2018-19. The previous year’s income included a write back of excess provision from Contingency Fund amounting to Rs 52,637 crore. A comparison excluding the same from previous year’s income, shows a marginal increase in the income for 2019-20, RBI said in annual report for FY20.

The expenditure of the Reserve Bank for FY20 stood at Rs 92,540 crore which included a risk provision of Rs 73,615 crore towards Contingency Fund as compared to an expenditure of Rs 17,045 crore in 2018-19. The year ended with an overall surplus of Rs 57,128 crore, RBI said. RBI transferred the surplus to government as dividend.

The increase on the asset side was due to increase in domestic investments (18.4 per cent) and foreign investments (27.28 per cent). The loans and advances grew by 245.76 per cent and increase in gold by 52.85 per cent.

Domestic assets constituted 28.75 per cent while the foreign currency assets and gold (including gold deposit and gold held in India) constituted 71.25 per cent of total assets as on June 30, 2020. In FY19, the share of domestic assets was 28.03 per cent while foreign currency assets and gold had a share of 71.97 per cent.

On the liability side, the increase was due to increase in Notes issued (21.52 per cent), Other Liabilities and Provisions (30.47 per cent), and Deposits (53.72 per cent).