New Delhi: Amid concerns over the decline in the value of the rupee against the US dollar, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asserted Tuesday that there is no collapse of the unit and it is actually finding its natural course. Nirmala Sitharaman informed the Rajya Sabha that the RBI is continuously monitoring the local currency and intervening only if there is volatility.
“The RBI interventions are not so much to fix the value of the Indian Rupee because it is free to find its own course,” the minister told the Rajya Sabha during Question Hour.
Replying to supplementaries, Sitharaman said interventions that are happening from the RBI side are more for containing volatility that is happening between the Indian rupee and the US dollar.
“Even the interventions being made by RBI are not so much to determine the value-increase or decrease, of the Indian rupee. It is not for that. It is more to avoid the volatility and allow it to find its course,” asserted Sitharaman.
“India, like many other countries, is not pitching its currency at a level extraneously. So the ways and which we want to strengthen… the RBI and the Ministry are fairly engaged in it,” she added as Rajya Sabha members expressed concerns over the decline in the value of the Indian currency.
On suggestions that non-resident Indians should be allowed to make remittances in foreign currency, Sitharaman said it is not an assurance that the Ministry of Finance will give but she can only pass on the suggestion to the RBI.
Sitharaman said the rupee has seen more fluctuations against the US dollar but its performance is better than its peers. “We have withstood the impact of the US Fed’s decisions much better than any other peer currencies,” Sitharaman told the house.
“Actually, if you compare the Indian rupee versus other currencies, it is appreciating in its value. I would like to assure the member that there is no collapse of the Indian Rupee,” the minister asserted.
On the reserves coming down, Sitharaman said, “We are still somewhere in the range of (USD) 500 (billion). It is not a small amount and India is still comfortably placed.”