364-Day T-Bills

The Government considered that it is important to develop government securities market for monetary control. It also had an intention to ensure that government's credit needs are met more and more directly from the market instead of pre-emption of deposit resources. With this view, treasury bill was developed as a monetary instrument with market related rates. As a part of the overall development of Government securities market, the Government of India proposes to float treasury bills of varying maturities up to 364 days on auction basis.

The Government, with an intention to stabilize the money market in the country, introduced the 364-day T-bills on 28th April, 1992. The RBI neither discounted these bills nor participated in the auction. 364-day T-Bills are auctioned fortnightly, but the amount, however, is not notified in advance. These T-bills have become popular due to their higher yield coupled with liquidity and safety. The yield on 364-day T-bills is used as a benchmark by the financial institutions such as IDBI, ICICI, etc., for determining the rate of interest on floating bonds/notes. These bills widened the scope of money market and provided an innovative outlet for surplus funds. The introduction on treasury bills of varying maturities would offer investors a wider choice for investing in different instruments and thereby foster the development of Government securities market.