(Bloomberg) -- A panel studying the Reserve Bank of India’s capital framework will recommend that the central bank transfer its surplus reserves to the government in tranches over three to five years, an official said.

The committee has finalized its report amid lingering differences among its members on some issues, the official told reporters in New Delhi Thursday, while asking not to be identified citing rules. The report will be submitted soon, the official said, without giving more details.

Any transfer of surplus capital by the RBI will help the government meet its goal of narrowing its budget deficit over time. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her maiden budget this month unexpectedly lowered the fiscal gap target to 3.3% of gross domestic product from 3.4% set in February’s interim plan, while penciling in higher dividends from the central bank in the year that began April 1.

If the surplus is transferred in installments over two to three years, the matter won’t be as politicized, a panel member had said earlier. The committee is unlikely to attach any conditions on the use of funds by the government, people familiar with the matter had said previously.

Finance ministry officials had estimated RBI’s surplus at 3.6 trillion rupees ($52 billion), while Centre for Advanced Financial Research and Learning, a Mumbai-based think tank, is of the view that the central bank has insufficient capital.

The central bank profits from its investments and printing of notes and coins, which it pays as dividend to the government every year -- pegged at 900 billion rupees this year. A small part of the gain is retained as capital reserves, which the finance ministry is looking to tap, arguing it’s more than what central banks keep around the world.

The committee, headed by former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan, has five other members including Subhash Chandra Garg, the economic affairs secretary at the finance ministry. The panel was to have submitted its report in 90 days from the date of its first meeting on Jan. 8, but its term was extended amid differences within.

To contact the reporters on this story: Shruti Srivastava in New Delhi at ssrivastav74@bloomberg.net;Vrishti Beniwal in New Delhi at vbeniwal1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net, Karthikeyan Sundaram, Subramaniam Sharma

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