The Indian government has again rolled over payment of USD 50 million in T-bills to the State Bank of India (SBI).
In a press release, the Indian government said the payment was deferred at the request of the Maldives government.
"Since March 2019, Government of India has been facilitating subscription of several such Treasury Bill by the SBI and rolling them over, annually, interest free to the government of Maldives," it stated.
The decision was made during a meeting between Indian Ambassador G. Balasubramanian and Finance Minister Moosa Zameer on Wednesday.
SBI bought the Treasury Bill under an agreement signed by the former government in 2019. SBI has bought a total of USD 200 million in Treasury Bills at a cost of USD 50 million for each one.
India deferred the payment in May this year and in May and September last year.
Meanwhile, Finance Ministry statistics show that the government has exhausted the MVR 3.8 billion budgeted for debt repayment this year.
According to the Weekly Fiscal Development Report, MVR 3.9 billion was spent on repaying loans till the end of the week. This is MVR 76 million more than the budget.
