New debt freezing project

The Finance Ministry will devise a new ordinance draft on freezing the debts to the state of 91 state-run companies, as recommended by the Competition Council, ministry officials on Monday said. “The new draft will set general regulations for these aids, which will be granted upon analysis of each separate case. There are two options, i.e. either have ordinance drafts for each separate case in order to grant those aids or have ordinance drafts for several groups of companies,” the quoted sources said. The Finance Ministry in June devised an emergency ordinance draft on freezing 74,495bn ROL in debts to the state accumulated by 91 companies for a specific period of time. The Finance Ministry representatives say all the companies targeted are state-run. The Competition Council insisted such aids could not be granted under the same conditions for all the companies and put together a series of recommendations, which the Finance Ministry will use for the new draft. “The issues are very complex. There’s no talk about whether such a measure is necessary or appropriate, because it is necessary. The initiative must be efficient enough so as not generate new arrears. Every company requires a thorough, pertinent analysis,” Jozsef Nemenyi Nandor, Competition Council deputy chairman said. ZF