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Indian Express
31-05-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Shift to new Central Secretariat buildings likely to start by August
Ending a nearly-100-year stay in the case of North Block and some 60 years for Nirman Bhawan, the Union ministries and departments located in these two complexes are likely to start shifting to the new Common Central Secretariat (CCS) 1,2 and 3 buildings by August, The Indian Express has learnt. The timeline for the remaining projects is also likely to be 'condensed', with the central government working on tenders for them, it has been learnt. The other CCS buildings are proposed to come up at the site of Nirman Bhawan, Shastri Bhawan, Krishi Bhawan, Udyog Bhawan and National Museum, which are expected to be demolished to make way for the new complex. Built as a part of the central government's larger plan to redevelop the Central Vista area — which stretches from India Gate to Rashtrapati Bhavan — the CCS 1,2 and 3 buildings are nearing completion. According to government sources, about 5% of the work is remaining in the new complex, which is located along Kartavya Path, earlier known as Rajpath, on one side, with Dr. Rajendra Prasad Road, Janpath and Man Singh Road on the other. The three buildings would be the first set to be completed out of the proposed 10 CCS buildings that are meant to come up after demolishing existing office buildings along Kartavya Path. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, whose Central Public Works Department is carrying out the Central Vista project, is among the ministries set to move from Nirman Bhawan to the CCS complex. North Block, which houses the Ministry of Home Affairs, Finance Ministry and Department of Personnel and Training, is also set to be emptied to make way for restoration and conversion as a national museum. Top government sources say the CCS 3 is nearly complete, while the other two buildings will be completed over the next three months. Larsen & Toubro Limited had in October 2021 won the bid for constructing the CCS 1,2 and 3 project with a bid of Rs. 3,141.99 crore — the CPWD's single largest tender. While the North and South Blocks were completed as a part of the new capital by the colonial British government in 1931, the other government office buildings, Udyog Bhawan, Nirman Bhawan, Shastri Bhawan, Rail Bhawan and Krishi Bhawan were constructed from 1956 to 1968. According to a government source, the timeline for the remaining Central Vista projects is likely to be 'condensed'. The entire project, which includes the construction of the new Parliament, redevelopment of Kartavya Path, 10 CCS buildings and a conference centre, Vice-President's Enclave, Executive Enclave and PM's residence, was initially proposed in 2019 and was meant to be completed by 2024. However, the project has been hit by delays, with only the Parliament building, VP Enclave and Kartavya Path revamp completed so far. Work on the Executive Enclave, the CCS 10 (at the site of Raksha Bhawan) and CCS 6 and 7 (site of old VP House and Vigyan Bhawan Annexe) are underway. The CCS 6 and 7 project was recently awarded to L&T by the CPWD, as per a statement by the construction company. The project is the first of the Central Vista works not to be designed by Ahmedabad's HCP Design, Planning and Management, which was the CPWD's consultant for drawing up the masterplan and its buildings so far. Damini Nath is an Assistant Editor with the national bureau of The Indian Express. She covers the housing and urban affairs and Election Commission beats. She has 11 years of experience as a reporter and sub-editor. Before joining The Indian Express in 2022, she was a reporter with The Hindu's national bureau covering culture, social justice, housing and urban affairs and the Election Commission. ... Read More
Time of India
24-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
RBI declares 27% higher dividend on higher capital provision
The RBI has declared a record surplus transfer of Rs 2.68 lakh crore to the Centre for FY25, exceeding budget estimates. The economic capital framework has been tweaked, widening the Contingent Risk Buffer range to 4.5-7.5% of the balance sheet. This revision allows for better risk management and more predictable dividend transfers to the government. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads The central bank Friday declared a record surplus transfer of Rs 2.68 lakh crore for FY25 to the Centre – exceeding North Block's budget estimates of dividend receipts for this fiscal and beating the FY24 payout by nearly a third - and reworked the balance sheet-referenced distribution formula to make future payments more economic capital framework (ECF), which is the theoretical bedrock determining the payout range for a financial year, has been tweaked so as to ringfence the Reserve Bank of India 's ( RBI ) finances in times of financial Friday, the RBI Board raised the upper band of the Contingent Risk Buffer (CRB), now to be maintained within a significantly wider range of 7.50 to 4.50 per cent of the central bank's balance sheet. The band previously ranged from 6.5 percent to 5.5 percent.'This revised CRB range gives the RBI more room for future dividends,'' said Abhishek Upadhyay, senior economist, ICICI Securities Primary Dealership. ``With this payout, it is possible for the fiscal deficit to be lower by 10-20 basis points.'One basis point is 0.01 percentage dividend transfer to the government, based on the Bimal Jalan committee recommendations, has "stood the test of time," and only some tweaking was required for the coming five years, a government official announced fund transfer of Rs 2.68 lakh crore is 27% higher than the Rs 2.1 lakh crore paid to the government by its money manager last year. The budget, in February, had estimated receipts of Rs 2.56 lakh crore as dividend income from the RBI and other financial institutions North Block the CRB was retained at 6.5%, as in the previous year, the surplus fund transfer could be Rs 3.5 lakh RBI's surplus transfer has become a key component in the government's management of fiscal balance. As the central bank's balance sheet and operations have been expanding, the transfers have also been increasing. Worried about a likely deterioration of the central bank's finances, a committee under former Governor Bimal Jalan was set up to prescribe a was reviewed internally by the RBI recently and that has suggested new norms, including the widening of the contingency reserve buffer."The extant ECF had met its objective of ensuring a resilient balance sheet for RBI, while maintaining a healthy transfer of surplus to the Government,'' the RBI said in a statement Friday. ``Certain changes have, however, been made with the objective of further strengthening the framework to align better with any emerging risks.'The central bank said the changes to the framework Friday allows better risk management, especially in an uncertain trade environment globally.'The revised ECF provides requisite flexibility in the maintenance of risk buffers, considering the prevailing macroeconomic and other factors, while also ensuring needed intertemporal smoothing of the surplus transfer to the government,'' the RBI revised framework using a much wider reference frame allows flexibility and is more practical, experts said.'The decision to widen the Contingency Risk Buffer band to 4.5-7.5% of the balance sheet from 5.5-6.5% previously is pragmatic,'' said Anubhuti Sahay, head of India economic research, Standard Chartered Bank. ``It provides the RBI with the required flexibility to manage potential volatility in income generation and the objective of financial stability and allows for better predictability on dividend transfer to the government and thus fiscal deficit planning.'The Jalan committee recommended a capital framework that served well for the RBI as well as the government as it ended a controversy over how much surplus the central bank could keep with itself. Former Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramaniam first raised the issue years ago when the government was facing a tough fiscal situation that led to disputes with the revised framework also includes factoring in the market risks associated with the off-balance items of the central bank into the capital framework, it of the central bank also do not remain the same as its positions in the market determine whether its trades in the money and forex markets turn profitable. After Covid, many central banks have slipped into losses, and some of them have skipped transferring any surplus to their governments because of lack of any gains.'The same kind of revenue may not always be expected in the future and hence cannot be called a new normal as forex sales may not be as large as this year,'' said Madan Sabnavis, economist, Bank of Baroda . ``But, on the other hand, if buffers are lowered when conditions are normal, then there could be earnings from this side.'Under the new framework, the central bank could transfer all of the realised equity above the 7.5 percent contingency buffer, while not transferring any when it falls below the lower respect to the Surplus Distribution Policy, any available equity in excess of 7.5% of the balance sheet (after considering shortfall in market risk buffers, if any) may be written back from the Contingency Fund to income, the RBI said."In case the available equity is below the lower bound of its requirement, no surplus will be transferred to the government until at least the minimum level of Required Realised Equity is achieved,'' the RBI said.
