The Government appointees on the powerful Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will be paid Rs 1.5 lakh per meeting along with air travel and other reimbursements, but will need to observe a ‘silent period’ seven days before and after the rate decision for ‘utmost confidentiality’. The silent period and confidentiality requirements will also apply to the three RBI members, including the Governor, on the panel that has been deciding on policy rates since October last year, the central bank has said.
The members of the RBI Governor-chaired panel, which has to hold meetings at least four times in a year, are also required to be mindful of any conflict between their personal and public interest while interacting with profit making organisations and making personal financial transactions, the Reserve Bank said in its newly notified regulations for functioning of the committee.
The six-member MPC, constituted in September 2016, has three persons appointed by the central government while the rest, including the Governor, are from the RBI. The members appointed by the Government would ‘receive a remuneration of Rs 1,50,000 for devoting time and work for each meeting of the committee. Which they attend and other expenses relating to air travel, local transportation and accommodation as may be decided by the central board from time to time,” as per the regulations. The panel is required to meet at least four times in a year and the RBI has been convening a bi-monthly meeting of this committee.
Chetan Ghate, professor at the Indian Statistical Institute, Pami Dua, director at the Delhi School of Economics and Ravindra H Dholakia, professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad are the three government-appointed members. Their appointment is for a period of four years or until further orders, whichever is earlier. Apart from RBI Governor Urjit Patel, Deputy Governor Viral V Acharya and Executive Director MD Patra are also part of the committee. The regulations do not mention whether any separate allowance would be given to the RBI members on the committee.
Earlier this year, Patel and his deputies got a big pay hike with the government more than doubling their basic salary to Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 2.25 lakh per month, respectively. According to the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) and Monetary Policy Process Regulations, 2016, MPC members should also take adequate precaution to ensure utmost confidentiality of its policy decision before that is made public and preserve confidentiality about the decision making process, these regulations were notified by the RBI earlier this month.