Deputy Finance Minister Says Debt Annulment Starts on December 15
Monday, December 3
According to him, preparatory works are currently underway to form the list of the people whose loans will be annulled.
"Additionally, around 10 more loan lending organization has been involved in the loan annulment project which did not wish to cooperate at the initial stage. The information will be allocated to the unified database, which will be placed in the nearest future on the website created for this project,” said Khutsishvili.
He added that each citizen will be able to check if they are in the list or address the financial institutions with the request to put them in the list.
Loan annulment is the recent initiative of the government, as a result of which bank debts of over 600,000 Georgian citizens, including those on a so-called ‘Black List', will be written off.
As stated by Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze in mid-November, total money for debts amounting to 1,6 billion GEL would be covered by the Cartu foundation, the foundation owned by ruling Georgian Dream (GD) founder and chair, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Cartu Foundation and commercial institutions had negotiations and reached the agreement that the foundation will take responsibility for the loans of black-listed people in banks, whose loans do not exceed GEL 2000. Out of the total 600,000 people, 150,000 are socially vulnerable ones.
The non-governmental sector stated the initiative of the ruling party contains signs of vote-buying ahead of the November 28 elections, adding it was directed in favor of Salome Zourabichvili, the candidate supported by the ruling party, who managed to win the race.
They even addressed the Prosecutor's Office to launch an investigation into the case, which is already underway.
The opposition also shares the position of the NGOs regarding the alleged attempt of vote-buying. They say the authorities “pressure private banks and micro-finance companies to sell the debts of people to Cartu Foundation for 1% of the total amount.”
Koba Gvenetadze, the President of the National Bank of Georgia (NBG), stated in late November that this is a one-time initiative and people should not think their future loans will also be paid.