New Delhi, May 27 (IANS): The size of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) balance sheet increased by 8.46 per cent as on March 31, 2022, mainly reflecting its liquidity and foreign exchange operations during the entire fiscal year.

While income for the year increased by 20.14 per cent, expenditure increased by 280.13 per cent, according to the RBI's Annual Report for 2021-22 released on Friday.

The increase on the asset side was due to increase in foreign investments, domestic investments, gold, and loans and advances and on the liability side due to the increase in deposits and notes by it.

FY22 was the first full year of the April-March accounting cycle after transition from July-June. It shifted to a new accounting year in FY21 which was for nine months ended March 2021.

The year 2021-22 ended with an overall surplus of Rs 30,307.45 crore as against Rs 99,122 crore in the previous year, resulting in its decrease of 69.42 per cent, the report cited.

Earlier this month, the RBI said its Board approved the transfer of Rs 30,307 crore surplus as dividend to the Centre for the accounting year FY22, besides deciding to maintain the contingency risk buffer at 5.50 per cent.

As per a framework, the RBI has to maintain a contingency risk buffer of 5.5-6.5 per cent of its balance sheet.

Further, the report said the supply of notes during the year 2021-22 was at 222,505 lakh pieces, 0.36 per cent lower than that of the year 2020-21.

The expenditure incurred on printing of bank notes increased from Rs 4,012.09 crore in 2020-21 to Rs 4,984.80 crore in 2021-22.