31 May 2004 09:18
Ministry unlikely to swap CBR portfolio bonds in 2004
Former deputy finance minister Bella Zlatkis, who was in charge of
domestic debt at the ministry until May 27, told Interfax that the
MOSCOW. May 31 (Interfax) - The Finance Ministry is unlikely to be able to swap Central Bank of Russia portfolio
bonds worth 70 billion rubles into more liquid issues in 2004, as envisaged in this year's budget law, a source in
the Bank told Interfax.
ministry hoped to exchange the Central Bank portfolio bonds in May, after ironing out differences with the Bank. The
ministry and the Central Bank disagreed over whether the coupon of one of the bond issues could be exchanged, with the
ministry saying it could not and the Bank saying it could. The ministry asked the Audit Chamber for its opinion.
"We talked with the Audit Chamber and it said the exchange was not possible with or without the coupon,"
the Central Bank source said.
In passing the 2004 budget law, the article on restructuring Central Bank portfolio bonds was not formulated in the
way suggested by the Central Bank, he said. "As a result the formulation makes the exchange impossible in principle
in accordance with the current version of the article," he said.
"We are not given the right to change bond servicing terms. There was a phrase last year saying that we had to
maintain the schedule laid out per year, and now we have to maintain it on a day to day basis and this is technically
impossible," he added.
Amendments to the budget law may be made to find a resolution to this problem, he said. The Central Bank has asked
the Finance Ministry and Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov to get such proceedings underway. [RU ASIA EUROPE EEU
EMRG CEN GVD LAW] me
[Interfax] |
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