RBI board approves record dividend payment of ₹2.69 lakh crore to central government for FY25

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday announced a record ₹2.69 lakh crore dividend to be paid to the government for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025, 27.4% more than the previous payout in 2023-24.

In FY24 (2023-24), the central bank transferred ₹2.1 lakh crore dividend to the government. The payout was ₹87,416 crore for fiscal year 2022-23 (FY23).

The dividend payout was decided at the 616th meeting of the Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India led by RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra.

The board reviewed the global and domestic economic scenario, including risks to the outlook, RBI said in a statement.

The board also discussed the working of the Reserve Bank during the year April 2024-March 2025 and approved the Reserve Bank's Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year 2024-25.

The transferable surplus for the year (2024-25) has been arrived at on the basis of the revised Economic Capital Framework (ECF) as approved by the Central Board in its meeting held on May 15, 2025, RBI said.

"The Board approved the transfer of ₹2,68,590.07 crore as surplus to the Central Government for the accounting year 2024-25," it said.

As per the revised framework, the risk provisioning under the Contingent Risk Buffer (CRB) must be maintained within a range of 7.50 to 4.50% of the RBI's balance sheet.

Based on the revised ECF, and considering the macroeconomic assessment, the Central Board decided to further increase the CRB to 7.50%, RBI said.

Commenting on RBI's dividend announcement, Murthy Nagarajan, Head of Fixed Income at Tata Asset Management, said, "RBI dividend of ₹2.69 lakh is lower than market expectation of ₹3 lakh crore. This is due to RBI revising its contingent liquidity buffer to 4.5 to 7.5%. RBI board has increased its contingent reserve buffer to 7.5%, due to which this amount is lower than ₹3 lakh crore, which was the market expectation. This is a disappointment for the market, and we can expect some profit booking after the steep rally, which we saw in the last 10 days."