Methods Of Redemption Of Public Debt

Redemption of debt refers to the repayment of a public loan. Although public debt should be paid, debt redemption is desirable too. In order to save the government from bank¬ruptcy and to raise the confidence of lenders, the government has to redeem its debts from time to time.

Sometimes, the government may resort to an extreme step, such as repudiation of debt. This extreme step is, of course, violation of the contract. Use of repudiation of debt by the government is economically unsound.

Here, instead of concentrating on the repudiation of debt, we discuss below other important methods for the retirement or redemption of public debt:

Refunding:

Refunding of debt implies issue of new bonds and securities for raising new loans in order to pay off the matured loans (i.e., old debts).

When the government uses this method of refunding, there is no liquidation of the money burden of public debt. Instead, the debt servicing (i.e., repayment of the interest along with the principal) burden gets accumulated on account of postponement of the debt- repayment to save future debt.

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Conversion:

By debt conversion we mean reduction of interest burden by converting old but high interest-bearing loans into new but low interest-bearing loans. This method tends to reduce the burden of interest on the taxpayers. As the government is enabled to reduce the burden of debt which falls, it is not required to raise huge revenue through taxes to service the debt.

Instead, the government can cut down the tax liability and provide relief to the taxpayers in the event of a reduction in the rate of interest payable on public debt.

It is assumed that since most taxpayers are poor people while lenders are rich people, such conversion of public debt results in a less unequal distribution of income.

Sinking Fund:

One of the best methods of redemption of public debt is sinking fund. It is the fund into which certain portion of revenue is put every year in such a way that it would be sufficient to pay off the debt from the fund at the time of maturity. In general, there are, in fact, two ways of crediting a portion of revenue to this fund.

The usual procedure is to deposit a certain (fixed) percentage of its annual income to the fund. Another procedure is to raise a new loan and credit the proceeds to the sinking fund. However, there are some reservations against the second method.

Dalton has opined that it is in the Tightness of things to accumulate sinking fund out of the current revenue of the government, not out of new loans. Although convenient, it is one of the slowest methods of redemption of debt. That is why capital levy as a form of debt repudiation is often recommended by economists.

Capital Levy:

In times of war or emergencies, most governments follow the practice of raising money necessary for the redemption of the public debt by imposing a special tax on capital.

A capital levy is just like a wealth tax in as much as it is imposed on capital assets. This method has certain decisive advantages. Firstly, it enables a government to repay its (emergency) debt by collecting additional tax revenues from the rich people (i.e., people who have huge properties).

This then reduces consumption spending of these people and the severity of inflation is weakened. Secondly, progressive levy on capital helps to reduce inequalities in income and wealth. But it has certain clear-cut disadvantages too. Firstly, it hampers capital formation. Secondly, during normal time this method is not suggested.

Terminal Annuity:

It is something similar to sinking fund. Under this method, the government pays off its debt on the basis of terminal annuity. By using this method, the government pays off the debt in equal annual installments.

This method enables government to reduce the burden of debt annually and at the time of maturity it is fully paid off. It is the method of redeeming debts in installments since the government is not required to make one huge lump sum payment.

Budget Surplus:

By making a surplus budget, the government can pay off its debt to the people. As a general rule, the government makes use of the budgetary surplus to buy back from the market its own bonds and securities. This method is of little use since modern governments resort to deficit budget. A surplus budget is usually not made.

Additional Taxation:

Sometimes, the government imposes additional taxes on people to pay interest on public debt. By levying new taxes — both direct and indirect — the government can collect the necessary revenue so as to be able to pay off its old debt. Although an easier means of repudiation, this method has certain advantages since taxes have large distortionary effects.

Compulsory Reduction in the Rate of Interest:

The government may pass an ordinance to reduce the rate of interest payable on its debt. This happens when the government suffers from financial crisis and when there is a huge deficit in its budget.

There are so many instances of such statutory reductions in the rate of interest. However, such practice is not followed under normal situations. Instead, the government is forced to adopt this method of debt repayment when situation so demands.