First agreements signed to write off debts of poorest citizens

The first agreements with local government units and public companies to write off the debts of the poorest citizens with frozen bank accounts were signed at government headquarters on Monday, and Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said he was proud of it.

"This is the first time that the government has become involved in such a project, which would not have been possible without the good will and cooperation of the mayors," Milanovic said, noting that this was a one-off social measure.

"Such moves cannot be made all the time, but just as in the case of citizens with loans denominated in the Swiss franc, whom we helped once by passing a law to reduce their interest rates, in this case too we are doing all we can to make people's lives easier in this protracted and strenuous crisis and give them a chance for a fresh start," Milanovic said.

The agreements were signed by the prime minister, the mayors of Rijeka, Split and Osijek, the deputy mayor of Zagreb, the chief executives of the HP postal service and the HEP power company, and the business executive of the public broadcaster HRT. The signing ceremony was attended by the Ministry of Social Policy and Youth, Milanka Opacic, whose ministry had drafted the document.

Agreements with telecommunications companies and banks will be signed on Tuesday.

Under the scheme, the ceiling for the write-off of debt to telecom operators and state-run utility services is HRK 10,000 and HRK 25,000 respectively.

The total debt of people covered by this scheme was slightly below HRK 1.5 billion on 30 September 2014, when their bank accounts had been blocked for more than a year. The amount excluded the accrued interest of HRK 712.1 million.

(EUR 1 = HRK 7.6)

(Hina) vm

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