State Bank of India said in its latest report that the historic dividend payment of the Reserve Bank of India had given to the government with a steady increase in a strong sales and interest income of US $ 2.7 trillion.The report said that RBI’s active participation in the foreign exchange market was a major contributor in this vast surplus. In fact, the central bank emerged as the largest seller of foreign exchange reserves among Asian colleagues in January 2025.“This surplus payment is inspired by a strong gross dollar sales, high foreign exchange profit and steady increase in interest income,” the report said.In the last one year, Apex Bank adopted a series of aggressive measures, including large -scale US dollar sales as a part of its intervention strategy to stabilize the rupee. In September 2024, India’s foreign exchange reserves were $ 704 billion. Subsequently, the RBI started unloading a large amount of dollars to prevent excessive instability in the money markets.By February 2025, gross dollar sales reached $ 371.6 billion, which was more than $ 153 billion recorded during FY 2014. These rigorous interventions helped the Central Bank Book to benefit adequate foreign exchange, making a significant contribution to dividend payments.Along with foreign exchange benefits, RBI also increased the earnings from its holding in securities, which increased by Rs 1.95 lakh crore to Rs 15.6 lakh crore by March 2025. Falling government securities (G-SEC) reduced the Mark-to-Market (MTM) profit, overall interest income still recorded a healthy growth.The SBI report praised the prudent view of the central bank for maintaining financial stability. This further stated that the surplus transfer could be even more, possibly crossing the 3.5 trillion rupee, the central bank did not decide to increase its risk buffer.Contingency risk buffer (CRB), a security trap for unexpected shocks, was placed within 5.5 to 6.5 percent range of the balance sheet of RBI with a central board recommendations. The surplus was calculated under the revised Economic Capital structure (ECF) and was approved by the Central Board of RBI during a meeting held on 15 May 2025.This unpredictable Pawan comes as a major boost for the government’s finance. The Union Budget for 2025-26 had estimated a total dividend income of Rs 2.56 lakh crore from RBI and state-run financial institutions. With the latest payment, the actual figure will now be more than comfortable budget estimates.
