Russian occupation authorities in Crimea will pass a regional law allowing the local borrowers to write off their debts to Ukrainian banks, Russia’s Kommersant newspaper reported on July 17.
According to the newspaper, the new legislation will enable individuals and companies to dodge loan obligations up to a value of up to 5 million rubles ($84,600). Debts up to that amount will be unconditionally written off, with only the debt remaining above that amount having to be repaid.
The loan amnesty will affect most of the individuals and entrepreneurs in Crimea and Sevastopol city who owe money to Ukrainian banks, and will also allow local companies to significantly reduce their debts, Kommersant says.
The amnesty is to be based on amendments to Russian legislation on debts to Ukrainian banks in occupied Crimea passed in late 2015. The law says only Russian companies that had taken over loan obligations to Ukrainian banks and had then been accredited at Russia’s Loan Holders Protection Foundation can demand that pre-occupation debts in the peninsula be paid.
Only four such companies are accredited at the foundation, with the total amount of the Ukrainian debt obligations they bought being 1 billion rubles ($17 million). Their obligations primarily include retail customers whose debts do not exceed 5 million rubles, so these loans could soon be written off, the newspaper says.
Furthermore, on July 14, the Russian State Duma passed amendments to the law enabling the Loan Holders Protection Foundation to restructure and write off debts. The foundation will be placed under the control of the Crimean occupational authorities.
For those who fall outside the scope of the amnesty, the authorities will also propose “unprecedented preferences,” Kommersant says.
“In the case of a one-off contribution to (pay off) a certain part of a debt, a significant amount of it will be written off,” the newspaper reports.
“If 5 percent of the sum is repaid, 20 percent of the debt amount will be liquidated, and so the repayment of 20 percent will ensure the debt is completely written off.”
