Finance ministry, RBI on same page on monetary policy committee: Shaktikanta Das

New Delhi: The Finance Ministry today said it is working in close cooperation with the Reserve Bank on "every issue", including the setting up of a Monetary Policy Committee.

"We always hold frequent discussions between the Finance Ministry and Reserve Bank of India and both RBI and Finance Ministry are on the same page," Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said when asked about the Monetary Policy Committee.

"We are working in close cooperation with Reserve Bank on every issue," he said. MPC is expected to fix the benchmark interest rate of the RBI and set inflation targets. RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had said last week that the central bank has finished negotiations with the Finance Ministry on the issue of the MPC.

"It is completed. Everything is done, certainly the discussions between us and the government," Rajan had said when asked about the progress on MPC. Rajan had said that now the government has to decide on the timing of tabling the amendments to the RBI Act before Parliament.

RBI joined a growing list of central banks in the world with inflation targeting as an explicit objective by signing an agreement with the government last February. The agreement was signed after a committee headed by Deputy Governor Urjit Patel recommended a shift to this practice.