ONLY 283 RUSSIANS MANAGED TO GO BANKRUPT FOR FREE OR THROUGH OUT-OF-COURT BANKRUPTCY

The innovations in bankruptcy legislation that came into force last fall have finally begun to yield results. As of March 29, according to the Fedresurs.ru portal, 283 people were able to go bankrupt under a simplified procedure (it began to operate on September 1, 2020). This is less than 15% of the number of those who applied to the MFCs in September.

Now experts are speculating about whether the authorities will change the mechanism of "simplification" of such a relief of citizens' debts established last year.

The procedure assumed that a citizen gets the opportunity to submit an appeal through a multifunctional center and, after 6 months, wait for the completion of the legal procedure. At the same time, it was required to comply with two conditions: not to have assets to pay the debts off and also have debts in the amount of at least 50 thousand rubles, but not more than 500 thousand rubles. After that, the employees of the MFC, having made sure that none of the enforcement proceedings have brought results in collecting debts, must return the writ of execution to the creditors, and the citizens become bankrupt.

Statistics show that in September 2020, citizens sent almost 1.9 thousand applications to the MFCs.

Less than 400 applications were approved, and 73.8% of them were successful in obtaining insolvency status. Analysts say that in total, (almost 7 months of the rules) 2.6 thousand applications were approved out of 8.7 thousand citizens who applied to the MFCs by the end of March (which is less than one third).

A number of experts say that one of the main reasons for the moderate growth in the number of out-of-court bankruptcies may be the unwillingness of citizens to acquire official status, given that for many, the termination of proceedings on existing obligations due to lack of income is a solution to the problem. At the same time, many remember about pensioners, for whom receiving a small pension automatically means that enforcement proceedings cannot be terminated (as there is an income), which means that the procedure for out-of-court bankruptcy is unavailable.

Experts suggest various ways to soften the procedures established by the law, thereby expanding its effect on many needy citizens.

In particular, it is proposed to make it possible to apply for an out-of-court bankruptcy through the State Services Portal. In addition, there is a proposal to admit to bankruptcy those citizens whose income is equal to or less than the subsistence level established in a particular region. Representatives of the Ministry of Economic Development are in no hurry to come up with the new legislative initiatives, believing that it is necessary to observe the process longer and take into account the "suspension effect" associated with enforcement proceedings, which takes time.