The decisions of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) MPC meeting (RBI MPC Meet 2024) have been announced. At 10 am, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das announced the decisions of the MPC meeting. No change has been made in the repo rate in this meeting.
Apart from the repo rate in the MPC meeting, Governor Das has announced many other important decisions. Let us know about the main points of the RBI MPC meeting.
Repo Rate
This time also it has been decided to keep the repo rate stable at 6.5 percent. In February 2023, the repo rate was reduced from 6.25 percent to 6.5 percent. Since then, the repo rate has been kept stable for the ninth consecutive time. The cash reserve ratio has been kept stable at 4.50 percent and SLR has also been kept stable at 18 percent.
GDP
In view of the rising inflation in the country, the GDP growth estimate has been reduced in the MPC. However, the real GDP growth of the current financial year has been kept stable at 7.2 percent. But, GDP growth for the first quarter has been reduced from 7.3 percent to 7 percent. It was estimated at 7.2 percent for the second quarter, 7.3 percent for the third quarter and 7.2 percent for the fourth quarter.
Inflation rate
Retail inflation rate (CPI) for the financial year 2025 was kept stable at 4.5 percent due to rising inflation in the country. But, the inflation rate estimate for the second quarter was increased from 3.8 percent to 4.4 percent. At the same time, for the third quarter it was increased from 4.6 percent to 4.7 percent. Similarly, the CPI estimate for the fourth quarter was reduced from 4.5 percent to 4.3 percent.
Forex
The RBI Governor said that the forex reserve has reached its record high. By August 2, 2024, foreign exchange had reached $ 67,500 crore.
UPI
The limit of tax payment through UPI has been increased in the RBI MPC meeting. It has been increased from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.
Check payment clearance
RBI is working on speeding up check payment clearance. Shaktikanta Das said that efforts are being made to reduce check payment clearance to a few hours in 2 days.
Delegated payments will start soon
According to RBI, the user base of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has reached 42.4 crores. However, the user base is likely to expand further. There is also a proposal to introduce ‘delegated payments’ in UPI.
Shaktikanta Das said that ‘delegated payments’ will allow a person (primary user) to set UPI transaction limits for another person (secondary user) on the primary user’s bank account.
This is expected to increase the reach and use of digital payments across the country. Detailed instructions in this regard will also be issued soon. Along with this, RBI has proposed to prepare public data of digital loan giving apps to check unauthorized companies.
Apart from this, Governor Das said that guidelines were issued on September 2, 2022 to address concerns on protection of customer interests, data privacy, interest rates and recovery processes, mis-selling etc. However, media reports have exposed the presence of unscrupulous companies in digital loan giving which falsely claim to be associated with RBI (RE).
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