PM Bakhtadze: debts of 600,000 ‘blacklisted’ citizens to be annulled

The bank debt of over 600,000 Georgian citizens, including those on a  so-called ‘Black List’ will be written-off, announced the Prime Minister of Georgia Mamuka Bakhtadze this morning.

The process of annulment of the loans will start on December 15 and continue until December 31. In this period a total of 1.5 billion GEL will be written-off.

Almost 95% of debts of the “blacklisted" citizens come from loans, whose principal payments do not exceed 2,000 GEL. This is a financial liability of more than 600,000 people towards banks, online organisations or various financial institutions, which totals 1.5 billion GEL. In accordance with today's decision, these loans will be written off. This category includes almost 150,000 socially vulnerable citizens and tens of thousands of our disabled citizens”, Bakhtadze said.

Our approach is to overcome the problem of excessive debt, as a risk and a heavy-burden…Elimination of the excessive debt is a precondition for defeating poverty. Today's decision will allow hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens to get involved in the economic and social life of the country, which will make our economy more sustainable and the banking sector healthier”, Bakhtadze said.

Bakhtadze thanked the Cartu Foundation - a charity fund established and financed by Georgian tycoon and former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili - for its support in implementing the initiative of the annulment of “blacklisted” citizens’ debts.

As Bakhtadze said, “without its support, this extremely important initiative would never be carried out.”