Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has instructed the Cabinet of Ministers to ensure the payment in June through December 2012 of up to Hr 1,000 to each of the six million depositors of the former Soviet Sberbank as compensation for depreciated deposits.
"The state should deal with the return of debts to its citizens," he said at an extended government meeting on March 7.
The president placed personal responsibility for the organization of payments on the premier, the governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, and the vice premier for social issues.
"The previous government suspended the program of reimbursement of savings to Sberbank depositors. But there are many citizens that did not manage to receive Hr 1,000 in compensation that was promised to them. There are over six million of such citizens… From June 1 until the end of this year this part of the debt must be returned," the president said.
He said queues and crowds of people waiting for payments should not be allowed.
As reported, at the end of 2011 the government of Ukraine was planning to draft a bill on amendments to the law on state guarantees and the return of depreciated deposits from the former Soviet Sberbank and state insurance company to resume the payments. According to the Finance Ministry, it is impossible to count the real number of depositors. The ministry said that an inventory should be held and an electronic database should be created, and a legal base for the system of payments should be drawn up.
As of 1996, when the law on the indexation of devaluated deposits was adopted, the total sum of such deposits was estimated to be Hr 131.96 billion, at the exchange rate of one Soviet ruble equalling Hr 1.05.
Over the period of the effect of the law, around Hr 10.65 billion was returned, which is around 8%, and the general debt fell to Hr 121.31 billion, as of the beginning of 2010. Some Hr 6.5 billion was returned in 2008. In 2011 the national budget for the first time over the period did not foresee funds for the repayment of the debt to Soviet depositors. Neither does the national budget for 2012 envisage funds for such payments.
The parliament refused to adjust deposits to the level of inflation after 1996, while in 2010 the level of indexation increased to 578.5%, which would increase the debt to Hr 1 trillion.
According to MP Yuriy Poluneyev, the amount of adjusted depreciated deposits to Sberbank was Hr 60 billion, as of the beginning of 2011, while the register of depositors includes 11.768 million people.
