The government plans to sell some 4 trillion rubles ($1.1 billion) in treasury bills to individual investors next year to help cover the budget deficit, top finance officials said Thursday.


"This will be good for people, because they will get a chance to make a safe investment," said Konstantin Korishchenko, head of the secondary market department of the Central Bank.


"This will be good for the government, because it will raise money to cover the budget deficit, and it will give banks a perpetual source of profit," he added.


The Central Bank will make the securities accessible to average investors by authorizing commercial banks to set up special T-bill accounts, he said. The banks would be obligated to buy T-bills with the accounts' combined deposits.


At present, banks must place separate bids for each client who wishes to purchase T-bills, making the process complicated and costly.


Interest rates on the deposits would be paid according to annualized yields on the secondary T-bill market, which currently range from 250 to 320 percent -- significantly higher than the interest rates that Russia's more reputable banks offer on time deposits.


Korishchenko did not specify the date when the new system would come into force, but said that it would happen "not later than the first quarter of 1995."


The move toward the retail market is part of the government's plans to finance a large portion of next year's budget deficit by selling some 30 trillion rubles in T-bills -- 16 trillion to the Central Bank and the rest to institutional and individual investors.


Marina Chekurova, deputy head of the securities and stock market department with the Finance Ministry, said the ministry hoped to sell some 4 trillion rubles in T-bills to individuals in 1995.


Chekurova said there would be no restrictions on the kind of T-bills an individual could buy.


The Russian government has issued 3-month and 6-month bills as well as one-year bonds.


Konstantin Piskunov, stock department head with the Stolichny Savings Bank, welcomed the move, saying that it would make the process of buying T-bills "more convenient and simple."


He explained that at present T-bill operations are simply too expensive for most clients. He said his bank only had a few such clients, and that the minimum investment varied from 20 million to 50 million rubles.