The meeting of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) central board, which was slated to take a call on interim dividend, has been deferred to February 18, according to sources.
The board meeting, which will be the first after the Interim Budget 2019-20, will also be addressed by the Finance Minister.
The customary post-Budget board meeting was earlier scheduled for February 9 but has now been deferred, the sources said.
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The RBI board is going to take up request of the government for payment of interim dividend for the current financial year, they said.
The board will take a view based on the central bank’s first six months of audited earnings and finalise interim dividend transfer.
The RBI follows July-June financial year. So, the first half is completed in December.
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Last financial year, the RBI had paid an interim dividend of ₹10,000 crore, while it has already transferred ₹40,000 crore in the current fiscal.
The receipt from various sources, including RBI dividend, helps government meet fiscal deficit target.
In the Interim Budget 2019-20, the government has projected a fiscal deficit target of 3.4% for the financial year 2019-20.
The government also came out with a road map to reduce the fiscal deficit, the gap between total expenditure and revenue, to 3% of the gross domestic product by 2020-21, and eliminate primary deficit.
Primary deficit refers to the deficit left after subtracting interest payments from the fiscal deficit.