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Male: The Maldives has settled payment to India on a USD 50-million treasury bill, President Mohamed Muizzu said Monday, according to a local media report.

The move is aimed at reducing the country’s external debt burden.

India had extended financial support to the Maldives through treasury bills, also called T-Bills, subscribed by the State Bank of India (SBI).

Speaking at a press conference Monday, Muizzu said the previous administration had issued USD 50 million treasury bills to the SBI in 2019 to bridge budget shortfalls.

He said that the bills were rolled over annually at the request of the previous Maldivian government instead of being repaid upon maturity.

According to Muizzu, his administration repaid one USD 50 million T-bill in January 2024 and settled another on Monday, adding that another T-bill is due in September.

Therefore, we have saved the people from the USD 150 million debt trap the previous administration had set, Muizzu was quoted as saying by the Sun.mv news portal.

India has periodically rolled over Maldivian treasury bills since 2019 as part of emergency financial assistance to the island nation.

Treasury Bills are short-term government debt instruments through which governments raise funds from investors for immediate financing needs.

In the Maldives case, India’s support involved SBI subscribing to the Maldivian government’s treasury bills, with the repayments often extended through interest-free rollovers that helped ease short-term foreign exchange and fiscal pressures.

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