Reserve Bank of India will ensure abundant liquidity in the market for the credit system to function normally, Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Monday.

He emphasised that even as RBI is pulling out liquidity given over the last two years to support various sectors, there will be enough liquidity to meet the productive requirements of the economy.

“I would like to make it very clear with a lot of emphasis that even going forward, we will ensure there is abundant liquidity in the market for the credit system to function normally and we will ensure there is no scarcity of liquidity,” he said while addressing the CII National Council meeting.

He said most of the liquidity that RBI injected, had a sunset date and a lot of it has, in fact, come back.

Over the last two years, RBI had given a total liquidity support of about Rs 17 lakh crore. Of that, banks and small finance banks availed about Rs 12 lakh crore, he said.

“As I speak today, Rs 5 lakh crore has already come back and the rest will mature at the end of the third year and some of it will also come back in the intervening period,” he said.

“When you inject liquidity you are entering into what people describe as a Chakravyuh – a lot of people know how to enter but few know how to come out. It is therefore necessary to have sunset dates. At RBI, the day we announced that we enter that Chakravyuh, we planned for an exit route also and we would come out smoothly,” he said.

Das said RBI’s effort has been that the whole process of injection and withdrawal of liquidity take place in a non-disruptive manner.

On the banking sector, he said public and private lenders have raised additional capital over the last few quarters. At the system level, the capital adequacy of banks is at 16 per cent.

The Governor said the gross non-performing assets of all banks put together are at an all-time low of 6.5 per cent. The provision coverage ratio also stands at 69 per cent which is a robust figure.

Das noted that for the last two years, RBI has remained supportive of growth.

“We have resisted all temptations and expectations of reversing our monetary policy and moving away from our accommodative stance and moving away from our support to growth into a type of tightening regime,” he added.