Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada on Thursday, October 18, passed the Code of Bankruptcy Procedures of Ukraine (bill No. 8060) with 237 supportive votes, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported. “Thanks to the adoption of the code we would climb 10 positions in Doing Business,” Head of the parliamentary committee for economic policy Andriy Ivanchuk said, presenting the bill. Representing the code, the deputy said that the document is structured into four books. According to him, the first book regulates the general provisions and deadlines, the second – the activities of the self-governing organization of arbitration managers, the third – the issues of bankruptcy of legal entities.
“And the fourth book is a novelty in the Ukrainian legislation, earlier the country did not have it – it is the bankruptcy of individuals,” Ivanchuk said.
He said that this book provides an opportunity for individuals – bona fide borrowers in the event of a difficult economic situation to initiate a bankruptcy procedure and get rid of this debt obligation, while the lender is deprived of this right.
Ivanchuk said that more than 1,300 amendments were received to this bill for the second reading, of which approximately 40% were rejected. According to him, when the code was finalized, its structure was changed: the entire notions were removed from the bill, for example, the amicable agreement, and all remarks related to the amicable agreement lost their relevance.
The head of the committee said that a block of amendments on the introduction of an automated arrest of accounts was rejected, as it had not previously received support in parliament.
“Most of the amendments on the introduction of a unified electronic registry of debtors were rejected. In the process of discussion and in-depth analysis, we were shown fears that there might be a leak of confidential information about legal entities, especially individuals,” Ivanchuk also said.
According to him, many questions were transferred to the level of bylaws, in particular, the specification of the regulation of the procedure for the sale of the debtor’s property.
First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade Maksym Nefyodov said that the adopted document provides for the sale of bankrupt property at transparent electronic auctions of the ProZorro.Sales system. The head of the committee also said that the code would be enacted in six months.
Immediately before the vote, Ivanchuk reported that the Main Legal Department of the Verkhovna Rada prepared its comments on the document, which the committee promptly took into account on the evening of October 17. In this regard, he read another five pages of amendments with which the code was adopted.
