Transparency advocates believe that since the law does not differentiate between one MPC meeting and another, RBI must maintain records whenever rate-setting panel members meet. Regulatory institutions, the former official said, should have some amount of flexibility on what they choose to disclose in the interest of economic and financial stability. Meanwhile, a former RBI executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that while the central bank is required to publish minutes of MPC’s meetings, this wasn’t a regular meeting to look at inflation and policy rates. The MPC probably would have just been shown the contents of the letter prepared by the RBI, which was later sent to the government," said a person aware of the developments. “There were no resolutions discussed or voted on at the 3 November meeting, and that could be a reason for the lack of records. While the MPC determines the policy repo rate required to meet the inflation target, writing the letter to the government is not part of the committee’s mandate and is done by the RBI. RBI had earlier said that revealing remedial measures could lead to market disruptions and cause financial market volatility, and the government cited the lack of any provision under the RBI Act for making it public.Įxperts Mint spoke to were divided on whether RBI should have maintained a record of what was discussed at the meeting. Since then, the government and the regulator have maintained secrecy around the contents of the letter. The meeting, chaired by governor Shaktikanta Das, was attended by all MPC members. On 3 November, RBI said in a press release that the MPC held a meeting earlier that day to discuss and draft the report to be sent to the government under the provisions of Section 45ZN of the RBI Act. Under the inflation targeting framework of the RBI Act, the central bank has to explain its failure to the government, suggest remedial actions, and provide an estimate of the period within which it will meet the target. The meeting in November was prompted by RBI’s failure to meet its mandate to keep inflation within the flexible target of 2-6% for nine consecutive months between January and September last year.
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