BEIJING'S forced sales of treasury bonds has gone into high gear this week, making it likely that the Government will finally be able to unload the hitherto spurned issue.
But Chinese and foreign analysts say that the sales risk incurring widespread resentment among workers, who are already disgruntled with higher inflation and other new burdens resulting from the economic reforms over the past year.
Last week, the Beijing-funded Wen Wei Po of Hongkong outlined a 16-point austerity package, which included forcing workers to purchase all government bonds by July 15.
This year's 37 billion yuan (HK$49.91 billion) issue of state treasury bonds originally expired on May 1, but was so under-subscribed that the Government decided to extend the issue period. Officials blamed the poor sales on the fund-raising activitiesof enterprises, including issues of stocks and bonds with coupons of 20 per cent or more.
Forced sales of treasury bonds have been taking place over the past few months, but it is only this week, after the austerity programme came into effect, that many work units and government departments became serious about collecting funds.
''The Industrial and Commercial [Administration] Bureau telephoned me and said I had to pay a certain amount of money by the following day,'' said one Chinese businessmen. ''I said I didn't have the money. They said I would have to consider the consequences of not paying. They didn't say what the consequences would be, but it was a threat.'' The source said that about half of his associates at other businesses had received similar calls to hand in funds by yesterday.
The way in which the sales are forced upon workers varies from unit to unit.
