KYIV, Sept 20 – The Finance Ministry on Monday transferred to the National Bank of Ukraine part of the money necessary to redeem the government domestic loan bonds, known as OVDPs, or Treasury bills, an informed source said, Ukrainian News reported.
According to the source, the Finance Ministry transferred Hr 28.9 million to the NBU with the request that the money be paid only to the clients of the commercial banks holding unredeemed t-bills. The report says that NBU representative has confirmed that the money has been paid, but declined to specify the payment amounts.
“I think everything will be normal. I think they will facilitate payment,” the NBU representative said.
Finance Minister Ihor Mitiukov had promised on Monday to resolve the t-bill debt issue soon.
Mitiukov said that resolution of the problem depended on generating revenues into the state budget.
The Finance Ministry did not redeem the bonds held by a group of commercial banks and their clients when the bonds fell due on September 6 and 13.
According to the Association of Ukrainian Banks, the total sum of the debt was Hr 110 million.
According to the AUB, the National Bank of Ukraine initially bought the bonds at a primary auction and sold them to commercial banks via a secondary market in August.
According to Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko, the National Bank of Ukraine did not inform the Finance Ministry about the resale of the bonds, and the Finance Ministry has not made payment on the bonds since last year, the report said.
