The Treasurer of Puerto Rico is hereby authorized and directed to redeem or to purchase on the open market or wherever they may be offered for sale, bonds or other certificates of indebtedness of The People of Puerto Rico in the most advantageous form possible, and he may, if necessary for the redemption, pay additional interest or premiums and expenses in connection with those issues where, as they are not redeemable, this additional cost may be justified, for the purpose of saving interest for The People of Puerto Rico; and he is authorized to devote to these operations of payment all the available surpluses on hand belonging to regular funds and to the Insular Emergency Fund, and the surpluses of special appropriations or any other surplus of any kind. There is also hereby appropriated from any available funds in the insular treasury the sum of eight million (8,000,000) dollars, or such part thereof as may be necessary, for the purpose of the payment for, or redemption of, the bonds or certificates of indebtedness of The People of Puerto Rico which have been previously authorized and ordered paid. The Treasurer of Puerto Rico is directed, for the purposes of the authorization given him by §§ 35—43 of this title, preferentially to pay or to redeem the following issues of the public debt of The People of Puerto Rico now existing: the issue of three hundred and thirty-seven thousand (337,000) dollars with interest at four and one-half percent (41/2 %), authorized by Act No. 4 of December 14, 1931, (redeemable at any time when interest is to be paid in accordance with the terms of the contract); the issues of six million (6,000,000) dollars authorized by Act No. 13 of August 29,1923, at 5% (redeemable July 1, 1943), and of one million (1,000,000) dollars, at 5% (redeemable January 1, 1944, and authorized by Act No. 62 of July 16, 1921), that is, a total of seven million three hundred and thirty-seven thousand (7,337,000) dollars.
The Treasurer of Puerto Rico is likewise authorized to pay, with the approval of the Governor of Puerto Rico, any municipal bond or certificate of indebtedness when there is in the corresponding sinking fund sufficient balance to make this payment which the Treasurer of Puerto Rico may make on the most advantageous conditions possible, by paying additional interest, premiums, or expenses, provided the operation proves beneficial.
History —Dec. 7, 1942, No. 33, p. 174, § 1, eff. 90 days after Dec. 7, 1942.