Law Short Notes on Treasury Bills

Treasury Bills issued by the government as an important tool of raising public finance and up to 1994, were of three types, although all of them were 90-day bills. Among these three types, bulk was represented by ad-hoc treasury bills issued to meet the cash balance need of the government. A second type was the 3-months treasury bills on tap introduced in August 1972 and their purpose was to mop up the excess liquidity of banks. 

 
The third type was the 3-months treasury bills introduced for subscription exclusively by the non-bank financial institutions, non-financial enterprises and the public.Initially, a limit of Tk 250 million was set for the issue of such treasury bills. Later this limit was withdrawn and Bangladesh Bank was empowered to issue any amount of treasury bills for the non-bank public. Despite the withdrawal of the limit, the holdings of non-banking sectors remained small and commercial banks comprised the main market for the treasury bills. These bills continued to be reissued in every ninety days. In December 1994, however, treasury bills on tap and the treasury bills for nonbanks were abolished.

The holdings of treasury bills by the deposit money banks generally did not exceed the amount needed to meet the liquidity requirement. A substantial part of the treasury bills issued, therefore, needed to be held by Bangladesh Bank. Of the total Treasury bill holdings, the amount of holdings by the deposit money banks was 57% at the end of 1973 and amidst fluctuation, they came down to 27% at the end of June 1982. Later, the share started to rise and stood at 68% at the end of 1992. Thereafter, it fell sharply and came down to a lowest minimum of 4% at the end of June 1995.