Explain the following: Treasury bill is a powerful instrument in the money market.

Treasury Bills are very useful instruments to deploy short term surpluses depending upon the availability and requirement. Even funds which are kept in current accounts can be deployed in treasury bills to maximise returns. Banks do not pay any interest on fixed deposits of less than 15 days, or balances maintained in current accounts, whereas treasury bills can be purchased for any number of days depending on the requirements. This helps in deployment of idle funds for very short periods as well. Further, since every week there is a 91 days treasury bills maturing and every fortnight a 364 days treasury bills maturing, one can purchase treasury bills of different maturities as per requirements so as to match with the respective outflow of funds. At times when the liquidity in the economy is tight, the returns on treasury bills are much higher as compared to bank deposits even for longer term. Besides, better yields and availability for very short tenors, another important advantage of treasury bills over bank deposits is that the surplus cash can be invested depending upon the staggered requirements.