No plan to ask RBI for Rs 3.6L cr

​New Delhi: There is no proposal from the Union government to ask the Reserve Bank of India to transfer its surplus reserves, said Subhash Chandra Garg, economic affairs secretary in the Finance ministry, in a tweet on Friday. 

Dismissing reports earlier this week that it was seeking between Rs 1 lakh crore and Rs 3.6 lakh crore from the central bank's reserves, Garg said the government's fiscal math "is completely on track".

Garg said the only proposal concerning the reserves that the government was discussing was to fix the appropriate economic capital framework of the RBI. That framework is used to decide the adequate amount of reserves the central bank should maintain.

The government and the RBI have been clashing on several issues including the reserves question, and a government proposal to ease the capital and lending curbs for state-run banks. The rift has widened sharply in the past few weeks and will be taken up at the RBI's forthcoming board meeting on November 19.

On Thursday, former finance minister P Chidambaram said the spat between the government and the RBI was over a huge sum of money the government has demanded from the central bank.

The imposition of a never-before used rule was meant to force the hand of RBI Governor Urjit Patel, to pay Rs 1 lakh crore from the reserves of the Reserve Bank of India, who has refused to pay, he said. "Hope the Governor stands his ground," Chidambaram said, referring to the scheduled board meeting.