THE government is planning to offer Premyo bonds again, National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon said on Monday.

In a Viber message, Ms. De Leon told reporters the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) will start working on the next Premyo bond offer concept.

Ms. De Leon said the next Premyo bonds will also use the Bonds.ph mobile application introduced during the recently concluded sale of retail Treasury bonds (RTB).

The government had raised a record high of P516.3 billion in RTBs early this month at a coupon of 2.625%. Around P48 million of five-year RTBs were bought through the Bonds.ph app that was downloaded nearly 25,000 times from 85 countries.

Ruben Carlo O. Asuncion, chief economist of UnionBank of the Philippines, Inc., said proceeds from another Premyo bond offer could be used to beef up the state’s coffers and support its fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

“This decision may be because of high liquidity. Moreover, this is inline with what economic managers are saying that this pandemic and battling its economic impact may not be just one big punch but may need endurance,” Mr. Asuncion said via Viber on Monday.

This will be the second offering of Premyo bonds, which is part of the government’s bid to attract more small investors to government securities. Last year, the BTr raised P4.961 billion from the sale of the one-year peso-denominated papers.

Currently, Ms. De Leon said the BTr is working on the remaining raffle draws from last year’s Premyo bond sales.

Premyo bonds are government securities that have corresponding raffle entries for cash and non-cash prizes, aside from earning interest.

With the Premyo bonds’ success, Ms. De Leon said in January that they may consider offering the short-tenored securities annually.

The government borrows from local and foreign lenders to plug its budget deficit seen to hit 9.6% of gross domestic product this year. It plans to borrow around P3 trillion this year.

In the first half, state borrowings reached P1.72 trillion, already exceeding the P1.02 trillion raised last year. — Beatrice M. Laforga

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