MANILA – Members of the Bureau of the Treasury’s (BTr) auction committee Tuesday made a full award for the Treasury bond (T-bond) with a remaining life of one-year paper due to the strong demand.
The paper, which has an original tenor of seven years, was offered for PHP30 billion and received tenders amounting to PHP66.685 billion.
The T-bond was originally issued on March 20, 2014 while re-issue date is April 16, 2020.
Due to the large bids, the BTr opened its tap facility to offer PHP10 billion worth of the same tenor. Tenders submitted to the tap window reached PHP9.07 billion, which was fully accepted.
In a text message to journalists after the auction, National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon attributed the high volume of tenders to “strong onshore liquidity.”
“Liquidity is strong with accommodating statements from Gov,” she said, referring to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno who indicated the possibility of more cuts in both the central bank’s key policy rates and banks’ reserve requirement ratio (RRR) to address the economic impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
De Leon said the rate of the debt paper during the auction is “within secondary level.”
Rate of the one-year securities in the secondary market in the morning session stood at 3.317 percent, while the rate of the T-bond auctioned by the BTr Tuesday registered a yield of 3.675 percent.
Asked whether the government has the funds for the government’s financial aid program for poor households and workers whose livelihood were affected by the Covid-19-related quarantine, de Leon answered in the affirmative.
“Yes, funds (are) ready to (be) deploy(ed) for social amelioration program and the wage subsidy,” she added.
Finance Undersecretary Karl Chua, during the televised public address of President Rodrigo Duterte Monday night, said they are proposing a PHP51-billion wage subsidy for employees of small businesses as part of the support for the middle class.
He said there are about 3.4 million workers from the affected small businesses but only 2.6 million of them will initially receive the planned financial support because their employers submit the required filing to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). (PNA)
