Government wants to capture & control RBI’s reserves: P Chidambaram

NEW DELHI: Ahead of the RBI board meeting, Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday alleged that the Centre was determined to “capture” the bank to gain control on its Rs 9 lakh crore reserves.
In tweets, he said the government and the RBI were heading towards a “confrontation” in the Monday’s board meeting of the bank. “Government is determined to ‘capture’ RBI in order to gain control over the reserves.The other so-called disagreements are only a smokescreen (sic),” he tweeted.
“Nowhere in the world is the central bank a board-managed company. To suggest that private business persons will direct the governor is preposterous . November 19 will be a day of reckoning for central bank independence and Indian economy,” he tweeted. The government on November 9 had said it was discussing an “appropriate” size of capital reserves that the central bank must maintain but denied seeking a massive capital transfer from the RBI.