Former economic affairs secretary Rakesh Mohan Source: Dr Rakesh Mohan's website

The composition of the panel — Jalan holds the view that the government is supreme while Mohan is said to favour full autonomy for the apex bank — is being described as “balanced” by several bankers.

They cited as further evidence of the “balance” the presence of economic affairs secretary Subhash Chandra Garg and RBI deputy governor N.S. Vishwanathan on the panel.

“At first glance, it looks like a balanced composition. While we have Jalan, there is Mohan. Similarly, while there is Garg who will put across the government’s views on the matter, there is Vishwanathan from the RBI,” said a senior banker who did not wish to be named.

The other members of the committee are Bharat Doshi and Sudhir Mankad, directors on the RBI’s central board.

In a statement, the RBI said the committee had been asked to study global practices and suggest if the central bank was holding reserves and buffer capital in surplus of its requirements.

The government and the RBI under Patel had been at loggerheads over the Rs 9.6-lakh-crore surplus capital with the central bank. The finance ministry was of the view that the buffer of 28 per cent of the gross assets maintained by the RBI was well above the global norm of around 14 per cent.

Former RBI governor Bimal Jalan will head a six-member committee that will recommend the appropriate size of reserves the central bank should maintain and the dividend it should give to the government.

Rakesh Mohan, former economic affairs secretary who had earlier served as RBI deputy governor, will be the vice-chairman of the panel that was set up by the RBI on Wednesday in consultation with the government.

The panel has been given 90 days from its first meeting to submit its recommendations, which suggests the window will be extremely thin or non-existent if the government wants to implement the proposals before the general election.

The Centre has never said so but the showdown in the RBI that led to the exit of previous governor Urjit Patel had fuelled speculation that the Narendra Modi government is keen to get its hands on a part of the reserves to fund populist programmes before the polls.

Speculation was earlier rife that the government was in favour of Jalan heading the committee while Patel preferred Mohan.