Creation of sovereign wealth fund meets its first headwind

21 Jul 2011 Evaluate

To meet the growing demand of energy, India is considering creating a sovereign wealth fund (SWF) with above $10 billion, from its foreign-exchange reserves to buy energy assets overseas. Though the plan of creating country’s first SWF is still in its early stage but has started facing headwinds as the Reserve Bank of India had raised its concern over using foreign exchange reserves for SWF.  

India’s energy demand is increasing with the economic growth and development, and as the traditional source of energy is expected to shrink in future, the unconventional energy sources like shale gas, coal-bed methane and oil sands are attracting attention of fastest growing countries like China and India. In recent time, China has outpaced India in race to acquire oil and coal blocks in different parts of world, to meet its growing demand for the energy. The petroleum ministry had suggested setting up such mechanism in order to secure country’s energy supply against the growing demand.

However, Reserve Bank of India is not in a favor of using foreign reserves for financing the SEF, as the reserves are used for financing country’s Current Account Deficit (CAD). During 2010-11, India’s CAD was 2.6% of Gross Domestic Product and in the first week of July, country’s foreign exchange reserves stood at more than $314 billion as on July 8.

The deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia said 'There is a group which is examining this but no decision has been taken.' The original size of the fund was $10 billion but since commodity prices have increased, the size of fund, if approved could be higher.

However, the government is considering other option and can put aside funds for SWF from budget. But government is less likely to fund SWF through budgetary allocations as it may find it difficult in current fiscal year and in coming year government is expected to spend on populist schemes as there in elections in Utter Pradesh and Gujarat.

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