The Reserve Bank of India placed on its website today, the report of the Technical Committee (Chairman: Shri Y. H. Malegam) set up to review the form of presentation of the Reserve Bank’s Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Account. Some of the important recommendations made by the Technical Committee are:

a) Form of Balance Sheet

• Merger of the Issue and Banking Department balance sheets and preparation of a single balance sheet displaying at one place the total assets and liabilities of the Reserve Bank.
• Only the main items of capital, reserves, assets and liabilities be reported in the Balance Sheet and all details be shown in accompanying schedules.
• In determining the items which are to be shown separately in the schedules, items of similar nature can be grouped and shown as a single item and other items which are not material in value can be grouped and shown as a single item titled ‘Others’.

b) Nomenclature and Form of Profit & Loss Account

• The nomenclature ‘Profit & Loss account’ may be replaced by the nomenclature ‘Income Statement’.
• A single Profit & Loss account (or as per nomenclature recommended, ‘Income Statement’) may continue to be prepared.
• All the unrealised valuation adjustments (gains/losses) on various assets arising on translation of foreign currency assets or on marking of assets to market, should be routed through the Profit & Loss Account, and the corresponding net transfers to the Contingency Reserve, Asset Development Reserve, Currency and Gold Revaluation Account, Investment Revaluation Account and Exchange Equalisation Account be shown as a single item in the Profit & Loss Account (Income Statement) under the heading ‘Provisions’.
• Since interest income is the major source of income for the Reserve Bank, all items of a non interest earning nature be grouped under a single head and be shown as ‘Others’.

c) Accounting Policy

• While the Reserve Bank would prepare its financial statements generally in accordance with International Accounting Standards (IAS)/International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), it may make such departures as it considers appropriate.
• Rupee Securities should be carried at fair value, and any unrealised gain or loss on revaluation should be transferred to the Investment Revaluation Account. If the balance in this account turns into debit at any time, the debit balance should be charged off to the Profit & Loss Account (Income Statement).
• While Oil Bonds will be treated as ‘Held to Maturity’ and carried in the Balance Sheet at cost, all other domestic securities, other than treasury bills will be treated as ‘Available for Sale’ and accounted for accordingly. All foreign securities would also be treated as ‘Available for Sale’.
• Repo and Reverse Repo transactions be accounted for as lending and borrowing of funds and not as sale and purchase of securities.

The Reserve Bank would examine the report in consultation with all stakeholders.

Background

It may be recalled that the Reserve Bank had set up the Technical Committee in November 2012 (Press Release: 2012-2013 /901 dated November 29, 2012) to examine the form of presentation of its financial statements, the style and content of the management commentaries thereon and notes to the accounts of the balance sheet and to make recommendations to effect changes, if necessary, by appropriate legislative / regulatory modifications. The Committee submitted its report recently.

Alpana Killawala

Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2012-2013/2041

Merger of balance sheets proposed: single balance sheet and unified income statement for the central bank's financial reporting. Merger of the Issue and Banking Department balance sheets into a single consolidated balance sheet is recommended, with principal items shown on the face and details in schedules. The 'Profit & Loss Account' should be renamed 'Income Statement'; unrealised valuation gains and losses must be routed through the Income Statement with corresponding net transfers to various reserves shown as a single 'Provisions' item. Accounting policy to follow IAS/IFRS generally, permit departures, carry rupee securities at fair value with revaluation via the Investment Revaluation Account, treat Oil Bonds as Held to Maturity, other securities as Available for Sale, and record repo/reverse repo as lending/borrowing.