Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday hit out at the government over the record cash transfer by the RBI, saying the Prime Minister and the finance minister are 'clueless' about solving the 'self created economic disaster' and accused them of 'stealing money' from the Bank.
Rahul's reaction came a day after the RBI allowed the government to take Rs 1.76 lakh crore from its reserves to provide a fresh impetus to the economy.
'PM and FM are clueless about how to solve their self created economic disaster,' he tweeted. 'Stealing from RBI won't work - it's like stealing a Band-Aid from the dispensary and sticking it on a gunshot wound,' he said, using the hashtag '#RBILooted'.
In a separate tweet, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala wondered whether the move was 'fiscal prudence or fiscal hara-kiri'.
He also wondered if it was a coincidence that the Rs 1.76 lakh crore borrowed by the RBI matches with the 'missing amount' in the budget calculations.
'Is it a sheer coincidence that the Rs 1.76 Lakh Crore borrowed by RBI matches with the 'Missing' amount in the Budget Calculations,' he asked.
'Is this fiscal prudence or fiscal hara-kiri? Will this Rs 1.76 Lakh Crore be used to save BJP's crony friends,' he asked.
The Congress leader attached a media report on 'the mystery of the 'missing' Rs 1.7 Lakh Crore in India's budget'.
His party colleague and spokesperson Sanjay Jha said in a tweet, 'Robbed Bank of India: RBI.'
The RBI’s reserves consist of two parts: the contingent reserve buffer — which the Bimal Jalan committee characterised as “realised equity” — and a notional fund which represents the unrealised revaluation gains arising from exchange rate movements and the rise in gold prices that then enhances the value of the RBI’s substantial bullion reserves.
The currency and gold revaluation account had swelled to Rs 6,91,641 crore in 2017-18 and that was the pool that the government was clearly eyeing.
The Bimal Jalan committee, however, has said the “revaluation balances could be reckoned only as risk buffers against markets as they represented unrealised valuations gains and hence were not distributable”.
The RBI board accepted this logic and, therefore, chose to transfer funds from the smaller pool of funds, the contingent reserve buffer (CRB).
Written with PTI inputs