New Delhi, Feb 18 (UNI) The Reserve Bank of India Board on Monday decided to transfer an interim surplus of Rs 28,000 crore to the Government for the half year ended December 31, 2018.

This is the second successive year that the Central Bank will be transferring an interim surplus, the Bank said in a statement here.

The RBI said the transfer decision was based on a limited audit review and taken after applying the extant economic capital framework. The Board also reviewed the current economic situation, global and domestic challenges and other specific areas of operations of the Reserve Bank.

Prior to the Board meet, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley addressed the post-Budget meeting of the Central Board and outlined the various reforms and policy measures taken by the Government over the last four years and the effects thereof.

The meeting was attended by Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla, Finance Secretary and Secretary (Expenditure) Ajay Narayan Jha, Secretary (Revenue) Ajay Bhushan Pandey and Chief Economic Adviser Krishnamurthy Subramanian.

Deputy Governors N S Vishwanathan, Dr Viral V Acharya, B P Kanungo and Mahesh Kumar Jain of the Reserve Bank of India, and other Directors of the Central Board of the Reserve Bank also attended the meeting.

Government directors Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs and Rajiv Kumar, Secretary, Department of Financial Services were also present.

Earlier in the day, the Reserve Bank of India said it will ask all lenders to pass on the benefits of lower policy interest rates to customers. For the purpose, they have called a meeting of all public and private sector banks on February 21.

UNI SW RSA 1840