Don't need RBI's reserves to meet fiscal deficit: Arun Jaitley

New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday made it clear that the government does not need RBI`s reserves to bridge the widening fiscal deficit as the Lok Sabha voted the Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2018-19 to the tune of Rs 85,948.86 crore, including Rs.41,000 crore for bank recapitalisation.

"This government`s fiscal deficit track record has been better than any other government in the history. We do not need RBI`s reserves for (meeting the) fiscal deficit," he said replying to a brief debate on the demands.

India`s fiscal deficit for the eight months till November stood at Rs 7.17 lakh crore, which is 114.8 percent of the budgeted Rs 6.24 lakh crore.

The minister`s assertion comes against the backdrop of a raging debate over the government`s reported moves for securing the surplus reserves with the RBI, estimated to be around a few lakh crore of rupees, to fund government`s social welfare schemes ahead of the elections.

Jaitley said the global standard for economic capital framework for central banks was to have around 8 percent of their assets as reserves with even the most conservative nations having it at 14 percent.

"Does India need to have 27-28 percent (as risk capital)... The money which can be used for recapitalisation of banks or for poverty alleviation measures," he said adding the government only wanted to have a committee to review the matter.

The second Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2018-19 includes Rs 41,000 crore for recapitalisation of the public sector banks that have been hit hard by non-performing assets.

Jaitley said the government`s initiatives including the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) were bearing fruits and money stuck as NPA was now back into the banking system.

"The balance sheets of public sector banks are improving due to the IBC as money is coming back into the system. Rs 3 lakh crore has already been recovered through IBC. Banks` ability to lend is also increasing," he said.

Attacking the Congress, the Finance Minister said the asset quality review by the RBI initiated after this government took charge revealed the NPAs during the UPA regime were as high as Rs 8.5 lakh crore as opposed to the UPA`s claim of Rs 2.5 lakh crore.

Countering charges of a slowdown in the growth rate of the country`s gross domestic product (GDP), he said, "India is growing at 7.5 percent when the world is growing at 3 percent. We are also growing faster than China."

Jaitley also said that the government would continue to take all necessary steps to ensure that farmers get adequate minimum support price for their produce - 50 percent higher than their input cost as promised.

The demands for grants contain proposals involving a net cash outgo aggregating to Rs 15,069.49 crore and gross additional expenditure, matched by savings of the ministries and departments or by enhanced receipts and recoveries, aggregating to Rs 70,882.21 crore.