Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday lashed out at the Congress for saying that the government was 'stealing RBI's reserves'.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had earlier in the day hit out at the government over the record cash transfer from the RBI, saying the Prime Minister and the finance minister were 'clueless' about solving the 'self-created economic disaster' and accused them of 'stealing money' from the central bank.
'The Congress should have consulted its finance minister and seniors before making these allegations regarding the RBI. Yet, they have become consummate in making such allegations of stealing and I do not want to pay much heed to this,' Sitharaman said on the sidelines of a GST meeting.
The remarks come a day after the RBI decided to transfer Rs 1.76 lakh crore of surplus to a fund-starved government.
Sitharaman said questioning the credibility of the RBI, which had constituted the Bimal Jalan committee on determining the excess capital, is a 'worrying' sign. The committee had eminent people on it and making any allegations like this is 'outlandish', she said.
She said the government had not decided how to use the funds from the RBI.
According to some experts, the government has accounted for Rs 90,000 crore surplus from the RBI in the budget and the money can be used to prop up the sagging growth.
At the time of the constitution of the Jalan panel, former chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian had said the money should be used for specific purposes like bank recapitalisation.
The excess capital was one of the key issues which had led to the resignation of former governor Urjit Patel in December, and his deputy Viral Acharya last month had voiced concerns on the government raiding the balance sheet of the central bank.
Constitution of the committee was the first major decision taken by governor Shaktikanta Das on his appointment in December 2018 following Patel's resignation.
Written with PTI inputs