Mumbai, May 22 (IANS). The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday announced a record dividend of about Rs 2.87 lakh crore to the central government for the financial year 2026, which will help the government deal with the challenges posed by the ongoing crisis in West Asia.
The size of RBI’s balance sheet has increased by 20.61 percent on an annual basis to Rs 91.97 lakh crore by FY 26.
The decision was taken at the 623rd meeting of the Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India chaired by Governor Sanjay Malhotra in the country’s financial capital.
The Board reviewed the global and domestic economic outlook, which also analyzed future risks.
In this meeting, the annual accounts of the Reserve Bank for the financial year 2025-26 were discussed. The bank’s gross income increased by 26.42 percent over the previous year, while expenses before risk provision increased by 27.60 percent.
According to RBI, the net income before risk provision and transfer to statutory funds stood at Rs 3,95,972.10 crore in FY 2025-26, while it was Rs 3,13,455.77 crore in FY 2024-25.
“The revised economic capital framework (ECF) provides for maintaining contingent risk buffer (CRB) between 4.5 per cent and 7.5 per cent of the balance sheet size,” the central bank said.
Keeping in view the current macroeconomic factors, financial performance of the Bank and maintaining appropriate risk buffer, the Central Board decided to transfer Rs 1,09,379.64 crore to CRB CRB for FY 2025-26, as against Rs 44,861.70 crore in the previous year. The Central Board also decided to maintain CRB at 6.5 per cent of RBI’s balance sheet.
The Central Board also approved transfer of surplus of Rs 2,86,588.46 crore to the Central Government for the financial year 2025-26.
According to the budget documents, the Center is expected to receive Rs 3.16 lakh crore as dividends and surplus from the Reserve Bank of India, nationalized banks and financial institutions in 2026-27.
–IANS
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