FinMin carefully watching rupee movement: Economic Affairs Secretary

The government, along with the regulator, is carefully watching the rupee, which has slipped below the 90 mark against the US dollar, and may take measures once the situation becomes uncomfortable, Economic Affairs Secretary Anuradha Thakur said on Monday.

"Anything above 90, everyone starts talking about it. Even, we start watching it carefully. It is a question of flows, and we are impacted by that," he told PTI in an interview.

However, she said, a depreciating rupee does have a certain value in terms of export competitiveness whenever it happens.

"We are watching together with regulators and other stakeholders. We will see how to handle it if a situation more than uncomfortable happens," she said.

 

According to the Economic Survey 2025-26, the rupee depreciated by around 6.5 per cent between 1 April 2025 and January 22, 2026, making it one of the weakest-performing currencies in this period.

Its fall was comparable to that of the Japanese yen, which lost about 5.5 per cent, and steeper than declines seen in other Asian peers, such as the Philippine peso and the Indonesian rupiah.

Talking about the Budget announcement related to Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), she said the industry's long-pending demand has been accommodated in this Budget.

They were demanding that if the LLP Act can be modified and amended, and aligned with the functional requirements of AIFs, she said.

The amendments aim to remove operational constraints faced by AIFs, which often operate as trusts, by allowing them to transition into or operate as LLPs.

There will also be rationalisation of document filing for entry and exit of partners, she said, adding that these amendments are going to be of a nature that by becoming LLPs their liability will be limited.

Besides, she said, the Budget proposal of allowing Persons Resident Outside India (PROIs) to invest in equity instruments through the portfolio investment scheme (PIS) route is another important announcement to increase foreign currency flow.

"PROIs will be permitted to invest in equity instruments of listed Indian companies through the portfolio investment scheme.

"It is also proposed to increase the investment limit for an individual PROI under this scheme from 5 per cent to 10 per cent, with an overall investment limit for all individual PROIs to 24 per cent, from the current 10 per cent," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her Budget speech on Sunday.