LAWS OF GUYANA
PUBLIC LOAN AND TREASURY BILLS ACT
CHAPTER 74:03
Act
6 of 1916
Amended by





2 of 1994 O. 80/1980
6 of 1997


1 – 12 ... 1/2012
(inclusive) by L.R.O.
Pages Authorised
Current Authorised Pages
L.R.O. 1/2012
LAWS OF GUYANA
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Index
of
Subsidiary Legislation
Page

Public Loan (Increasing of Limit) Order 12

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CHAPTER 74:03
PUBLIC LOAN AND TREASURY BILLS ACT
ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS
SECTION
1. Short title.
2. Authorisation of loan not exceeding $15,000,000.
3. Previous sanction of Legislative Council.
4. Issue of bonds for sum sanctioned.
5. Power of Legislative Council to limit time for repayment.
6. Provision for repayment of loan.
7. Principal and interest to be part of public debt.
8. Defaced bonds.
9. Bonds lost or destroyed.
REGISTRATION OF BONDS
10. Exchange of registered for bearer bonds or vice versa.
11. Annual date for exchange.
12. Provisions relating to bonds—
(a) register may be kept in London;
(b) bearer bond may become registered by endorsement of
registration, and vice versa, by cancellation of endorsement;
(c) registered bond transferable at place where registered.
SUPPLREMENTARY PROVISIONS RELATING TO PUBLIC LOANS
13. (1) Raising a loan and costs of doing so.
(2) Method of raising.
(3) Appropriation and application.
(4) Principal and interest of loan to be part of public debt.
14. Payment of interest on loan.
15. Sinking fund.
16. Investment of moneys to provide for sinking fund.

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SECTION
ABOLITION OF POWERS TO RAISE LOANS
(NO. XII OF 1929)
17. No further loan under preceding sections hereof.
TREASURY BILLS
18. (1) Power to borrow by the issue of Treasury bills.
(2) Principal.
(3) Proceeds.
(4) Amounts and period of currency.
19. Repayment.
20. Cancellation of repaid bills.
__________________________
1929 Ed.
c. 47
1953 Ed.
c. 289 _______________________________________________________
6 of 1916 An Act to provide that no further Loans shall be raised
under the Public Loan Act.
[6TH MAY, 1916]
Short title.
Authorisation
of loan not
exceeding
$15,000,000.
1. This Act may be cited as the Public Loan and
Treasury Bills Act.
2. Where the Legislative Council sanctions the cost of
any public work being defrayed by a loan, or where it
sanctions any advance being made on loan to any local
authority, body corporate or person, or where it authorises
any amount being raised on loan for any purpose, the
CHAPTER 74:03
PUBLIC LOAN AND TREASURY BILLS
ACT
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Previous
sanction of
Legislative
Council.
Issue of bonds
for sum
sanctioned.
Schedule.
Power of
Governor, for and on behalf of the Colony, in order to procure
the necessary funds, may borrow and raise by loan under the
provisions of this Act from time to time and as occasion shall
require, on the security hereinafter mentioned, sums of
money not exceeding in the whole fifteen million dollars.
3. No sum shall be raised on account of the loan
unless the sanction of the Legislative Council is first obtained
to its being so raised, and the amount so raised shall be
appropriated for the special object sanctioned by that Council.
4. (1) The Governor may, for and on behalf of the
Colony, from time to time and as occasion shall require, cause
bonds to be issued in the form in the Schedule, or in any other
form sanctioned by the Governor in Council, signed by the
persons legally holding the offices of Chief Secretary and
Financial Secretary for the time being, or by any other person
or persons on behalf of the Colony thereto specially
authorised by the Governor in Council.
(2) (a) Each bond shall be for the sum of fifty
dollars, or of one hundred dollars, or of two hundred dollars,
or of five hundred dollars or of one thousand dollars, or of
two thousand dollars, or of two thousand five hundred
dollars, or of three thousand dollars, or of four thousand
dollars, or of five thousand dollars, payable to bearer; or
registered as stated in section 10, and shall become repayable
within the number of years not exceeding fifty from the time
of issue and bearing interest to be paid half-yearly at the rate
per cent per annum, from time to time approved by the
Legislative Council and sanctioned by the Secretary of State.
(b) The authority by this section conferred on the
Governor includes authority to cause bonds to be issued for
sums of ten pounds sterling (equivalent to forty-eight dollars
at the rate of four shillings and two pence to the dollar) or any
multiple of ten pounds.
5. Where the Legislative Council directs that the
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Legislative
Council to limit
time for
repayment.

Provision for
repayment of
loan.

Registration
officers.

Principal and
interest to be
part of public
debt.
[O. 80/1980]
Defaced bonds.
amount raised for any special object shall be paid within any
less number of years than fifty, the bonds drawn for the
purpose of raising the necessary funds shall be so drawn that
the whole of them shall become payable within the time
specified by the Legislative Council.
6. (1) In order to provide for the repayment of the loan
there shall be set apart in each year from the Consolidated
Fund, in addition to the interest of the amount of the bonds
from time to time issued under this Act, that portion of the
capital sum of those bonds which will be sufficient in the
aggregate to pay it as and when it becomes payable.
(2) The amount to be so set apart in each year for
the repayment of the capital sum raised for each special object
sanctioned by the National Assembly shall be an equal
proportion of the capital sum so raised.
(3) Where the sum set apart in each year cannot be
immediately applied to the redemption of the bonds to which
it is applicable, it shall be invested under the direction of the
Minister until it, with the accruing interest, can be so applied:
Provided that, when in determining the amount to
be set apart in each year any allowance is made for interest to
accrue on the sums to be invested, the interest to be obtained
shall not be estimated at a higher rate than five per cent per
annum.
7. All principal sums and interest becoming due in
respect of the bonds issued under this Act shall be part of the
public debt of Guyana within the meaning of article 221 of the
Constitution.
8. If any bond issued under this Act is by accident
defaced, the Minister may cause a new bond to be made and
delivered to the bearer and the defaced bond to be cancelled,
and the new bond shall bear the same interest and be subject
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Bonds lost or
destroyed.

Exchange of
registered for
bearer bonds or
vice versa.
[6 of 1997]

Annual date for
exchange.
[2 of 1964]
to the same rules as the original bond.
9. The Minister on proof to his satisfaction that any
bond issued under this Act has by accident been lost or
destroyed before it has been paid off, may, if the number and
amount of the bond is ascertained, and upon due security
being given to his satisfaction for indemnifying the
Government for any loss to which it may at any time be
subjected by reason thereof, issue a new bond corresponding
in all respects with the bond so lost or destroyed, or, if any
bond when so lost or destroyed is overdue, the Minister may
cause the money due thereupon to be paid off and
discharged.
REGISTRATION OF BONDS
10. (1) The holder of any bond may, at his option,
have his name registered as a bond holder in the books of the
Accountant General and a registered bond issued to him in
exchange for the bond, and the bond will thenceforth while
so registered be transferable only by an instrument of
transfer registered in the books of the Accountant
General.
(2) The holder of a registered bond may, at his
option, have the registration cancelled by the Accountant
General and a new bond transferable to bearer issued to him
in exchange for the registered bond.
(3) The fee in each case of exchange will be sixty-
five dollars.
11. The Minister shall by notice published annually in
the Gazette fix a date or dates for the receipt of applications for
the exchange of any issue of bearer bonds for registered
bonds or for the exchange of any issue of registered bonds for
bearer bonds, and bond holders shall transmit their
applications to the Minister on or before that date or those
dates.
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Provisions
relating to
bonds.
Register may
be kept in
London.
Bearer bond
may become
registered by
endorsement
of registration,
and vice versa,
by cancellation
of endorse-
ment.
Registered
bond transfer-
able at place
where
registered.
12. Where any loan has been or shall be raised under
this Act the following provisions shall apply:
(a) the Minister may, in respect of the
bonds to secure the loan, authorise to
be kept in London by the person he
appoints books in which the holder of
any bond may at his option have his
name registered as a bondholder;
(b) a bond payable to bearer shall become
a bond payable to the registered
holder if there is endorsed on it a note
of its registration, and a bond payable
to the registered holder shall become
a bond payable to bearer if there is
endorsed on it a note of the
cancellation of its registration, and the
endorsement aforesaid shall be
executed if the bonds are registered in
Guyana, by the Accountant General,
or if the bonds are registered in
London by the person appointed by
the Minister under the last preceding
paragraph;
(c) a registered bond shall, unless
otherwise provided by the conditions
thereof, be transferable by instrument
of transfer registered in the books of
the Accountant General in Guyana if
registered in Guyana, or in the books
kept in London if registered in
London.

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Raising a loan
and costs of
doing so.
Method of
raising.
c. 74:01

Appropriation
and
application.
Principal and
interest of loan
to be part of
public debt.
[O. 80/1980]
Payment of
interest on loan.
SUPPLEMENTARY PROVISIONS RELATING TO
PUBLIC LOANS
13. (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in any
Ordinance, whenever by any resolution the Legislative
Council authorises any amount being raised on loan for any
purpose, the Governor, or the Crown Agents for the Colonies
acting on his behalf, may raise by loan in London an amount
sufficient to produce as nearly as may be the sum authorised
by the resolution and any further sum necessary to defray the
expenses of issue.
(2) The loan so authorised or any part of it may be
raised from moneys belonging to sinking funds held by the
Crown Agents for the Colonies on behalf of all or any of
Her Majesty’s colonies and protectorates, or it may be raised
under the General Loan and Stock Ordinance, as the
Governor or the Crown Agents acting on his behalf may
decide.
(3) The money so borrowed under the authority of
this section shall be appropriated and applied for the purpose
or purposes specified in any resolution from time to time
passed by the Legislative Council.
(4) The principal moneys and interest represented
by the loan issued under this Act shall be part of the public
debt of Guyana within the meaning of article 221 of the
Constitution.
14. While any portion of the loan remains outstanding
the Minister shall, in each half-year ending with the day on
which the interest on the loan falls due, appropriate out of the
Consolidated Fund a sum equal to one half-year’s interest on
the whole of the loan outstanding and remit that sum to the
Crown Agents in the United Kingdom for Overseas
Governments and Administrations (hereinafter referred to
as the Crown Agents) at a time that will enable them to pay
thereout the then current half-year’s interest on the day on
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Sinking fund.
Investment of
moneys to
provide for
sinking fund.

No further loan
under
preceding
sections hereof.

which it falls due.
15. The Minister shall also appropriate out of the
Consolidated Fund, for the formation of a sinking fund for
the repayment of the loan, an additional sum in respect of the
total nominal amount of the loan outstanding equal to one-
half of the annual contribution to be decided by the Minister
on the issue of the loan, and shall remit that sum to the
Crown Agents in each half-year as aforesaid with the
remittance hereinbefore mentioned:
Provided that the contribution shall commence not
later than three years after the date from which the interest on
the loan commences to run.
16. The Crown Agents shall invest so much of the
money so remitted to them as shall not be required for the
payment of interest for the current half-year in the purchase
of securities approved of by the Minister as a sinking fund for
the final extinction of the debt, and shall also invest the
dividends, interest, or produce of those investments in the
purchase of like securities, and may, from time to time with
the approval of the Minister, change any of those investments
and shall hold the funds in trust for the repayment of the
principal moneys for the time being represented by the loan.
ABOLITION OF POWERS TO RAISE LOANS
[No. XII of 1929]
17. From and after the 26th January, 1929, it shall not
be lawful for the Legislature to exercise any of the powers
conferred by the preceding sections of this Act with respect
to the raising of loans, or for any further or other loan to be
raised under those sections.

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Power to
borrow by the
issue of
Treasury bills.

Principal.
[O. 80/1980]
c. 1:01
Proceeds.
Amounts and
period of
currency.
Repayment.
Cancellation of
repaid bills.
TREASURY BILLS
18. (1) The Minister, whenever authorised thereto by a
resolution of the National Assembly, may request the Crown
Agents to borrow, by the issue in London of Guyana
Government Treasury bills (hereinafter shortly called bills),
sums not exceeding the amount specified in the resolution;
and the Crown Agents may also, with the approval of the
Minister, borrow from time to time by the issue of those bills
any sums required to pay off at maturity bills already
lawfully issued by them and outstanding.
(2) The principal moneys represented by the bills
so issued under this Act shall be part of the public debt of
Guyana within the meaning of article 221 of the Constitution.
(3) The proceeds of the issue of the bills shall be
paid into the general account of the Government of Guyana
with the Crown Agents.
(4) Every bill so issued shall be for the sum of one
thousand pounds, or a multiple of one thousand pounds, and
shall be payable at par at the time or times fixed and
determined by the Minister, or the Crown Agents on his
behalf, before the issue of the bills, but not later than one year
from the date of issue.
19. The Minister shall appropriate out of the
Consolidated Fund the necessary sum to pay the principal
represented by the bills, and shall remit that sum to the
Crown Agents in London at a time that will enable them to
pay the principal at their office in London when the bills fall
due.
20. Upon repayment of the principal moneys
represented by the bills, they shall be delivered up to the
Crown Agents, to be by them cancelled and transmitted to the
Government of Guyana.

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O. 21/1984
O. 29/1994
O. 31/1994
Citation.
Increase in limit
prescribed by
section 2(1).
.
SUBSIDIARY LEGISLATION
______________________
PUBLIC LOAN (INCREASING OF LIMIT) ORDER
made under section 2(2)
1. This Order may be cited as the Public (Increasing of
Limit) Order.
2. The limit prescribed by section 2(1) of the Act is
hereby increased to one hundred and fifty billion dollars.
______________________