The government adopted a regulation today amending the Law on Financial Operations and Pre-Bankruptcy Settlement aimed at accelerating the settlement process so that the government can achieve the consolidation of the private sector within the announced four months.
According to Finance Minister Slavko Linić, his ministry expected that from October 1, when the law came into effect, more than 20,000 applications for pre-bankruptcy settlements would arrive by the end of the year, but so far they have received 244 applications from companies with around 8 billion kuna in obligations and debts and more than 7,230 employees. Of these, there are only 47 serious cases with debts exceeding 10 million kuna, totaling 7.8 billion kuna in obligations and more than 6,000 employees.
As is our old custom, a huge number of applications will arrive in the last fifteen days of the year and probably also in January and February, says Linić, but he still insists that the government will be able to resolve this issue in four months, as not only are the relevant ministries ready, but banks are also showing great willingness, and they have agreed to cooperate with HUP.
The regulation changes previous provisions that prevented anyone from submitting an application for a pre-bankruptcy settlement if they had incomplete documentation, leading some banks and creditors to seize the debtor’s assets. Given that these are irregular debtors in trouble, banks suggested that we accept applications with incomplete documentation and start the settlement process so that no one could block the account, and management would receive a controller for spending the funds, said Linić.
