Give structure of BOP Accounts in India.
A balance of payment account is a complete statement of a country's receipts and payments in foreign exchange resulting from international economic transactions. The structure is generally composed of three sections, namely, (i) Current Account,
(ii) Capital Account, and (iii) Reserve account (Overall Balance of payment). Current account is concerned with exports and imports of goods, services (invisibles) and unilateral transfers. Capital account consists of commercial borrowings, investments, capital transfers, etc. Overall balance of payment is the net result of total of current account and capital account after deficit in one account is offset with surplus in other account. We see in daily life that when an individual spends more than his income, he finances the difference (i) by borrowing or (ii) by selling his assets. Similarly, when a country faces a deficit in current account (i.e., when it spends more abroad than receives from sales), it finances the deficit either (i) by borrowing or (ii) by selling its assets (like stocks, bonds, etc.). Thus any current accounT deficit is necessarily financed by a net capital inflow.
Although transactions in BOP accounts are recorded in double entry book keeping yet official maintenance of these accounts is usually in single column as shown in the following table. Thus it is easy to explain the structure of BOP Account with the help of data relating to India's balance of payments for the year 2007-08. The following table is an extract from Government of India, Economic Survey 2008-09, Table showing summary of balance of payments.
India's Balance of Payments for 2007–08 (In र crores) |
|||
1. |
Export |
579,128 |
|
2. |
Imports |
865,404 |
|
3. |
Trade balance (1 – 2) |
- 286,276 |
|
4. |
Invisibles (net) |
240,923 |
|
5. |
Current Account Balance (3 + 4) |
- 45,343 |
|
6. |
External assistance (net) |
7,937 |
|
7. |
Commercial borrowing (net) |
146,546 |
|
8. |
Banking (net) |
8,477 |
|
9. |
Rupee debt service |
- 725 |
|
10. |
Foreign investment (net) |
70,443 |
|
11. |
Other flows (net) |
17,565 |
|
12. |
Errors and Omissions |
2,588 |
|
13. |
Capital account (net) (6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12) |
252,831 |
|
14. |
Overall Balance (5 + 13) |
207,488 |
|
15. |
Reserve Use (– increase) |
- 207,488 |
Sources: Economic survey 2008-09
The above table shows current account deficit of र –45,343 crores because trade balance deficit of 286,276 crores is partially offset by invisibles account surplus of 240,923 crores. The capital account also shows surplus of 252,831 crores during the year 2007-08. Thus deficit in current account and surplus in capital account have resulted in overall surplus which is transferred to foreign exchange reserve leading to accumulation in foreign exchange reserve of the country. Since RBI used this surplus to purchase foreign currency assets, therefore, there was outflow of foreign currency to the tune of surplus, i.e., र 207,488 crores. So this outflow is shown as a negative entry. Indian economy was not significantly affected by global financial crisis which had set in around August 2007 as India received huge Foreign Institutional Investment (FII) during September 2007 to January 2008.
Balance of payments always balances. This balance is in accounting sense only because BOP accounts are prepared on the basis of system of double entry under which receipts are always equal to payments. As a result, this accounts are always in balance. Remember when a country is said to have favourable or unfavourable (adverse) balance of payment, it is in fact in the context of current account of BOP. The balance of current account need not be equal but can show surplus or deficit. The point to be noted here is that a deficit or surplus in current account is balanced by an equal amount of surplus or deficit in capital account. This deficit or surplus is met by transfer in capital account: (a) by borrowing from abroad, (b) by using SDRs of IMF, and (c) by drawing upon country’s foreign exchange reserves. Thus in accounting sense overall BOP always balances. BOP is a wider term inclusive of both balance of current account and balance of capital account and is always zero.