The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) central board met on Friday via video conference to discuss various issues, including impact of the measures undertaken by the central bank after Covid-19 outbreak in India.

The 583rd meeting of the central board deliberated on the current economic situation and the evolving challenges posed by the pandemic, the central bank said, adding, “among others, the board also discussed the Reserve Bank’s activities during the period (July 2019-June 2020), the budget for the next accounting year July 2020 to March 2021 (aligned with the Government’s financial year), other policy and operational matters,” the central bank said in a statement.

While there was an expectation that the board would also discuss one-time restructuring scheme for stressed assets of banks, it was not there in the agenda for the board meet. According to a central bank official, the RBI does not need board approval for such policy issues. However, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday had said that a one-time loan restructuring facility for non-MSMEs (medium, small and micro enterprises) was under active consideration. “An intense engagement is on with the RBI to come up with such a scheme. There is a lot of stress now,” she said at a webinar organised by the Chennai International Centre.

The RBI statement did mention about other matters, but did not give details of them. A source said the issue of one time restructuring was not discussed at all, despite the finance minister referring to an intense engagement, but that doesn’t mean the central bank is not preparing for it. Such restructuring is a long standing demand of banks too, especially considering the stress after the Covid related lockdown, and RBI can shell out the formalities in no time if required.

The RBI board meet was chaired by governor Shaktikanta Das, and was attended by all deputy governors, and other directors of the bank -- N. Chandrasekaran, Ashok Gulati, Manish Sabharwal, Prasanna Kumar Mohanty, Dilip S. Shanghvi, Satish K. Marathe, Revathy Iyer, and Sachin Chaturvedi. Tarun Bajaj, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs and Debasish Panda, Secretary, Department of Financial Services also attended the meeting.