According to the weekly statistical supplement released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday, the Central Government of India has no outstanding loans with the central bank under the ways and means advances in the week ended 6 September.

There were no outstanding loans in the prior week as well.

The release also showed that the State Governments had loans worth Rs 421 crore from the RBI in the week ended 6 September as against Rs 606 crore in the previous week.

The RBI essentially acts as a banker to the Central and State Governments. The banking functions for the governments are carried out by the Public Accounts Departments at the offices/branches of the Reserve Bank.

On 26 August, RBI decided to release a record transfer of Rs 1,23,414 crore of its surplus to the central government for the fiscal year 2018-19 (July to June) and an additional Rs 52,637 crore of excess provisions. The decision was taken as per recommendations of the Bimal Jalan committee on Economic Capital Framework (ECF).

This surplus transfer, which is also termed as 'dividend' is almost double of the previous record high of Rs 65,896 crore. In the previous year, Rs 50,000 crore was transferred by RBI, while in 2016-17 the dividend was only Rs 30,659 crore due to demonetisation.