Niti Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar on Friday made a strong case for setting up of an independent debt management office outside the purview of Reserve Bank of India, saying it was “an idea whose time has come”.
The idea of a Public Debt Management Agency (PDMA) was proposed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his February 2015 Budget speech, though it has not yet been implemented.
“...It is important for this particular office be separate, because then you can pay much more attention on public debt management. That will help the government in bring down cost of its debt,” Kumar said at an event organised by Niti Aayog here.
At present, the government debt, including market borrowing, is managed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The Government has to decide how to segregate different functions of the RBI, Kumar said adding that government been very courageous to give the central bank the statutory authority for the inflation targeting.