RBI dividend to shield fiscal deficit amid crude shock, says ex-banker K K Gupta

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 18 (ANI): India's macroeconomic trajectory is most likely to remain heavily insulated against escalating geopolitical turmoil, said ex-banker K K Gupta on Monday.

Gupta, former General Manager (Credit), Central Bank of India, Central Office, Mumbai, while speaking to ANI, said this is possible because the Indian economy is fortified by an anticipated multi-billion-rupee dividend windfall from public financial institutions and a solid external buffer.

Speaking on the dividend the Union government is likely to receive from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Gupta said that the Union Budget has aggressively pegged total institutional dividend inflows at Rs 3.61 lakh crore, a significant step up from the Rs 2.69 lakh crore delivered strictly by the RBI during the previous fiscal cycle.

He believed that foreign exchange operations and profitable security sales may push the final payout well past last year's historic benchmark.

"Getting a dividend from these entities is a return on the government's investment. This windfall will enter the central pool to suppress the fiscal deficit, effectively funding development and capital infrastructure projects," stated Gupta, who currently serves as the Director of Resurgent India Limited, a premier corporate financial advisory firm based in Mumbai.

However, he cautioned that the external landscape presents immediate pressure points, adding that intense regional friction, including the US-Iran situation, has triggered crude oil price volatility, eroding India's foreign exchange reserves by a few billion dollars over the past two months.

Gupta noted that despite this minor contraction, India's external sheet remains pristine, backed by a substantial 10 to 11 months of import cover and full 100% asset coverage for all short-term maturing debt liabilities.

Speaking on the RBI's upcoming Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) review, Gupta projected a temporary policy pause. "Inflation is bound to feel the heat from volatile crude price spikes," he warned, maintaining that a strict status quo is highly likely to guard the domestic economy against global cost contagions. (ANI)

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