Changes in Bankruptcy Law

The Ministry of Economy held a public debate on the Draft Law on Amendments to the Bankruptcy Law and the Law on the Agency for Licensing of Bankruptcy Trustees (Hereinafter: the “Draft Law”). The public debate ended on February 3, 2021, and these are some of the more significant changes made to these Laws.

Article 8 of the Bankruptcy Law stipulates the urgency of bankruptcy proceedings as one of the main principles. In order to conduct the procedure as quickly and efficiently as possible, the Draft Law goes a step further and envisages the urgency of other proceedings before courts and state bodies in which the bankruptcy debtor is a party to the proceedings. Also, the Draft Law is making efforts to harmonize with the requirements of the World Bank for the needs of “Doing Business” ranking list. One of these requests is certainly the acceleration of the bankruptcy procedure, and in accordance with that, the deadline for filing claims has been shortened from 120 to 60 days. In addition, it is proposed to shorten the deadline for scheduling a hearing on the proposal to initiate bankruptcy proceedings in accordance with the pre-prepared reorganization plan and voting on that plan from 90 to 60 days as well as to shorten the deadline for scheduling and announcing a hearing on voting on the reorganization plan, also from 90 to 60 days.

The Draft amends Article 20 of the Bankruptcy Law by introducing a new way of selecting bankruptcy trustees, specifying that the selection will be made from either the general or special list of active bankruptcy trustees, depending on the criteria for classifying legal entities into micro, small, medium or large legal entities. Theoretically, the existence of two lists of bankruptcy trustees from which the selection is made should address the issue of competence of bankruptcy trustees, especially bearing in mind that the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Agency for Licensing of Bankruptcy Trustees prescribes professional training of bankruptcy trustees for development and improvement of the profession of bankruptcy trustees itself.

New measures have been introduced that should serve to better control the work of bankruptcy trustees, such as the amendment to the Article 26 of the Law, which stipulates for additional cases of dismissal of bankruptcy trustees in case of breaches of duty in conducting bankruptcy proceedings. However, this change is still reserved only for severe violations of the bankruptcy procedure, and not for the inefficient work of the bankruptcy trustee, which is a much more common occurrence (prolongation of the sale of property, prolongation of the division of money obtained by selling the bankruptcy debtor’s property, etc.) and should be further addressed.

Article 59 of the Law, which refers to the reimbursement of costs, has also undergone certain changes. Namely, it is envisaged that for medium and large legal entities, the amount of the blockade will affect the determination and the amount of the advance. The practical significance of this change is questioned as there are rare situations in which the bankruptcy debtor has blockades of less than 100,000 or 500,000 RSD. In such cases, bankruptcy proceedings are rarely initiated, instead the creditors are more inclined to initiate enforcement proceedings. It would be more expedient to link the criterion of determining the advance, for example, to the type of property of the debtor and the location of such property (whether it is movable or immovable property, is it located in one or more municipalities in Serbia and such).

In addition to the Law on Bankruptcy, efforts have been made to amend the Law on Licensing of Bankruptcy Trustees to uniform the entire bankruptcy procedure. Following the latest amendments to the Bankruptcy Law and the Law on the Agency for Licensing of Bankruptcy Trustees, there is a need to adopt new regulations to comply with World Bank requirements for the needs of the Doing Business ranking list, especially in the field of electronic real estate sales and issuance, in the leased assets in bankruptcy, and keeping mandatory statistics related to bankruptcy proceedings. Thus, the latest amendments envisage that the sale of the bankruptcy debtor’s property, leasing and other procedures related to the bankruptcy debtor’s property can be carried out through the electronic ALSU portal. It is also envisaged that the agency will publish advertisements, decisions and other acts of the court through its portal in accordance with the Bankruptcy Law.

An additional change that should speed up and improve the bankruptcy procedure is keeping statistics. By adopting the amendments to the law, the Agency would collect, process, analyze and publish statistical data, and the courts will have the right to inspect the data from the statistical database.

All in all, the amendments seem to be an improvement of the current Laws and its affects will have to be assessed once the implementation begins.

Despite all these changes, we still believe that the bankruptcy procedure needs reform in order to for all these changes to make sense and be implemented in their full capacity.

Zakonom o stečaju je u članu 8. kao jednom od glavnih načela predviđena hitnost stečajnog postupka. U cilju što bržeg i efikasnijeg okončanja postupka, Nacrtom se ide korak dalje te se predviđa hitnost i drugih postupka koji se vode pred sudovima i državnim organima u kojima je stečajni dužnik stranka u postupku. Takođe, Nacrtom zakona se ulažu napori da se izvrši usklađivanje sa zahtevima Svetske banke za potrebe što uspešnijeg kotiranja na „Doing business“ rang listi. Jedan od takvih zahteva je svakako ubrzavanje sprovođenja stečajnog postupka, te je u skladu sa tim rok za prijavu potraživanja skraćen sa 120 na 60 dana. Osim toga, predloženo je i skraćenje roka za zakazivanje ročišta za glasanje o predlogu za pokretanje stečajnog postupka u skladu sa unapred pripremljenim planom reorganizacije i glasanje o tom planu sa 90 na 60 dana i skraćenje roka za zakazivanje i oglašavanje ročišta za glasanje o planu reorganizacije takođe sa 90 na 60 dana.

Nacrtom se menja član 20. Zakona o stečaju tako što se precizira da će se odabir stečajnih upravnika vršiti bilo sa opšte ili posebne liste aktivnih stečajnih upravnika, a u zavisnosti od kriterijuma za razvrstavanje pravnih lica na mikro, malo, srednje ili veliko pravno lice. Načelno, postojanje dve liste stečajnih upravnika sa koje se vrši izbor bi trebalo da se reši pitanje stručnosti stečajnih upravnika, naročito imajući u vidu da je Nacrtom zakona o izmenama i dopunama Zakona o agenciji za licenciranje stečajnih upravnika propisana stručna obuka stečajnih upravnika radi razvoja i unapređenja same profesije stečajnih upravnika.

Uvedene su i nove mere koje bi trebalo služiti boljoj kontroli rada stečajnih upravnika, poput izmene člana 26. Zakona kojim su predviđeni dodatni slučajevi razrešenja stečajnih upravnika u slučaju postojanja povreda dužnosti pri vođenju stečajnog postupka. Ova izmena je ipak i dalje rezervisana samo za grube povrede stečajnog postupka, a ne i za neefikasan rad stečajnog upravnika koja je znatno češća pojava (prolongiranje prodaje imovine, prolongiranje deobe novca dobijene prodajom imovine stečajnog dužnika i sl.).

Član 59. Zakona koji se odnosi na naknadu troškova, preciznije određivanje predujma, takođe je pretrpeo određene izmene. Naime, predviđeno je da će za srednja i velika pravna lica iznos blokade uticati na određivanje i visinu predujma. Upitan je praktični značaj ove izmene utoliko što su retke situacije u kojim stečajni dužnik ima blokade manje od 100.000 ili 500.000 RSD. U ovakvim slučajevima se retko kad i pokreće stečajni postupak, već se uglavnom pokreće postupak izvršenja. Celishodnije bi bilo da se kriterijum određivanja predujma veže na primer za vrstu imovine i mesto nalaženja takve imovine (da li je pokretna ili nepokretna, da li se nalazi u jednoj ili u više opština u Srbiji).

Osim Zakona o stečaju uloženi su napori da se izmena i dopunama Zakona o licenciranju stečajnih upravnika uskladi celokupna stečajna procedura. Nakon poslednjih izmena Zakona o stečaju i Zakona o agenciji za licenciranje stečajnih upravnika, pojavila se potreba za donošenjem novih propisa radi usklađivanja sa zahtevima Svetske banke za potrebe „Doing Business“ rang liste, naročito zato što je akcionim planom predviđeno uspostavljanje elektronske prodaje nepokretnosti i izdavanja u zakup imovine u stečaju, te vođenje obavezne statistike u vezi sa stečajnim postupcima. Tako se sada, najnovijim izmenama predviđa da se preko elektronskog ALSU portala mogu sprovoditi i postupci prodaje imovine stečajnog dužnika, izdavanja u zakup i drugi postupci vezani za imovinu stečajnog dužnika. Predviđeno je i da će agencija preko svog portala objavljivati oglase, rešenja i druge akte suda i skladu sa Zakonom o stečaju.

Dodatna izmena koja bi trebalo ubrzati i unaprediti stečajni postupak jeste vođenje statistike. Usvajanjem izmena zakona bi Agencija vršila poslove prikupljanja, obrade, analiziranja i objavljivanja statističkih podataka, a sudovi će imati pravo uvida u podatke iz baze statističkih podataka.

Čini se da će amandmani poboljšati postojeći Zakon, dok će se učinci prepoznati tek kroz njihovu primenu.

Uprkos svim izmenama smatramo da je i dalje neophodna celokupna reformacija stečajnog postupka, kako bi sve ove izmene došle do svog punog izražaja.