The Reserve Bank of India will be transferring its surplus profit of Rs 45,719.60 crore to the Government of India(GoI). This sum will include a Rs 34,308.60 crore profit on sale of the 59.73% SBI stake held by RBI to the government.
The accounting of the payment for the SBI stake sale led to a spike in the federal fiscal deficit in June, but the government has said the overall transaction should be budget neutral.
Dealers expect the transfer to boost surplus cash in the system if the government used the dividend to step up spending.
In the meanwhile, the RBI on Thursday said it has formed a working group to find ways to revive trading of interest rate futures and to consider whether foreign investors should be allowed to trade the derivatives.
The interest rate futures was introduced in June 2003 but the market did not last long, with analysts blaming restrictions and a lack of liquid underlying securities needed for pricing.
The RBI said the group would make recommendations on restarting the market, and would examine whether regulatory guidelines needed to be aligned with those used for swaps.
The working group?s report would be submitted to the RBI within three months of its first meeting, for which no date was announced.
Last year, a RBI-appointed panel said India needed to develop an interest rate futures market to enable participants execute trading calls and hedge underlying exposure better.
The eight-member group will be chaired by VK Sharma, executive director of the RBI and includes Uday Kotak, managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, Ravi Narain, managing director of the National Stock Exchange, MM Lateef, chief financial officer of the State Bank of India.