ZAGREB, Jan 28 (Hina) - The Croatian Government on Thursday discussed in depth and adopted a programme of measures to deal with illiquidity. The programme was put together by a government commission formed towards the end of last
year. The proposed programme, set to deal with Croatia's economic hot cake, has been presented in two sections. The first phase contains measures which the government is to implement within the current legislative framework. The second relates to changes to legislature, particularly the Law on Legal Execution and Bankruptcy, which is to be submitted to parliament in a fortnight. As of December 31, 1998, 26,502 companies had their accounts blocked. The total debt of these companies amounted to US$2.25 billion. They nevertheless had 182,000 employees registered. A total of 22,500 of these companies were privately owned. More than 15,000 companies had their account
ZAGREB, Jan 28 (Hina) - The Croatian Government on Thursday
discussed in depth and adopted a programme of measures to deal with
illiquidity. The programme was put together by a government
commission formed towards the end of last year.
The proposed programme, set to deal with Croatia's economic hot
cake, has been presented in two sections. The first phase contains
measures which the government is to implement within the current
legislative framework. The second relates to changes to
legislature, particularly the Law on Legal Execution and
Bankruptcy, which is to be submitted to parliament in a fortnight.
As of December 31, 1998, 26,502 companies had their accounts
blocked. The total debt of these companies amounted to US$2.25
billion. They nevertheless had 182,000 employees registered. A
total of 22,500 of these companies were privately owned.
More than 15,000 companies had their accounts blocked for more than
360 days, said the head of the government commission, Dinko
Zidarevic.
The largest debts were incurred by wholesale traders amounting to
about US$484 million; these were followed by retail stores with a
debt of US$406 million; agriculture with US$172 million; food and
drink manufacturers also with US$172 million; and companies
involved with building with a debt of US$156 million.
The government commission's proposed measures suggest that these
debts be settled via ordinary instruments of payment. Transfer of
shares should only be conducted where the law allows it.
One of the measures proposed by the commission is to prohibit new
contracts by companies that have not settled their debts in the
previous year. It also entails the same conditions of payment for
both the public and private sectors.
One of the most urgent problems to be resolved, considers Croatian
Finance Minister Borislav Skegro, is the non-payment of income tax,
as well as the non-payment of contributions for pension and health
insurance.
In this regard, Prime Minister Zlatko Matesa stressed that the main
task faced by the government was to supervise the payment of
contributions to the pension and health insurance funds.
Economy Minister Nenad Porges said the government "needs to enter
into a loggerhead with those companies which are at the core of
illiquidity". He said that "in its bad business", "Diona" for
example, was dragging along with it a series of food industry
companies, such as "Kras", "Podravka" and others.
The government commended the commission's efforts to resolve
illiquidity.
(hina) sp/ha jn