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Minister Vasant Bharath on $2b bond issue: Govt has liabilities to contractors, wages
Published:
Friday, September 21, 2012
Vasant Bharath, Minister in the Ministry of Finance and Trade Minister.
It is not unusal for the Government to float a $2 billion bond issue, said Vasant Bharath, Minister in the Ministry of Finance and Trade Minister. He said the Government is justified in floating the bond since there are government liabilities. “There are several government liabilities that are outstanding - there are liabilites to contractors, there are liabilities with regard to wages, there are lots of outstanding liabilities. It is the reason why we currently have a deficit, simply because revenues are not matched by expenditure. That’s a sequence that has been going on now for several years. Last year the deficit was about $7.5 billion.
It is likely that we would run another deficit certainly for this year and for another two years. These are general liabilities that the Government has to cover and we need to raise funds for.” Bharath was speaking to reporters yesterday after the NEM leadership conference which was held at Hilton Trinidad, St Ann’s. On September 16, the Government published a notice of a $2 billion, 15-year bond issue. It is the second bond issue for 2011-2012 and carries a coupon rate of 5.2 per cent an annum. Central Bank of T&T, the agent for the bond issue, started the auction system for the issue on Monday, which would close at 1 pm on September 25. The bond is being issued under the Development Loans Act (71:04).
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