Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh government is planning to buy back its securities for a better cash management along with reducing interest expenditure from annual budget, officials said.
The ministry of finance has taken the latest move against the backdrop of a surplus in balance of government account that stands at around BDT 15 billion.
As part of the move, a tripartite meeting among senior officials of both the ministry of finance and the Bangladesh Bank (BB) and treasury heads of all the primary dealer (PD) banks was held at the central bank headquarters in the capital Dhaka on Sunday.
The PD banks proposed at the meeting that the government should conduct the buyback as and when required. They also urged the authorities concerned to consider maturity of bonds and treasury bills (T-bills) maintaining the commitment to minimum timeline.
“We expect that the buyback issue be finalised at the next CDMC (Cash and Debt Management Committee) meeting scheduled to be held by the end of October,” a BB senior official told BBN in Dhaka.
The government bought back its securities worth BDT 11.16 billion in the fiscal year (FY) 2007-08 and FY 2009-10, according to the official.
Currently, three T-bills are being transacted through auctions to adjust government borrowings from the banking system. The T-bills have 91-day, 182-day and 364-day maturity periods.
Furthermore, five government bonds with tenures of two, five, 10, 15 and 20 years respectively are traded on the money market.
Bangladesh’s central bank earlier had selected 20 PD banks to deal in government securities on the secondary market.
BBN/SSR/AD