RBI autonomy important, retain its special status: Ahluwalia

TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi-Joining the debate on Reserve Bank’s autonomy, former Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said the special status of the central bank should be preserved. “RBI is special and that specialness should be retained. It is better to have complete transparency…It is good idea to change regulation… The autonomy of Reserve Bank is extremely important and whatever is done in future, in my view, should be consistent with that objective,” Ahluwalia said in an interview.

“The whole idea of having central bank and also monetary committee is anchored on the notion that an independent central bank professionally run taking long term view of monetary and financial side is something that contributes to people’s belief that economy is going to be well run. We cannot afford to lose that,” he added.

Earlier, the issue of RBI’s autonomy was raised by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and former governors Y V Reddy and Bimal Jalan. RBI union too expressed concerns over dilution of central bank’s autonomy over the way demonetisation issue has been handled by the Finance Ministry. The ministry, however, had said that the government respects the autonomy and independence of the Reserve Bank.