A total of 165,000 personal bank accounts in Croatia are blocked, and 78,142 new bank accounts have been opened by citizens to avoid the seizure of incomes exempt from distraint, officials at the Financial Agency (FINA) have said.
Incomes exempt from distraint are social benefits, unemployment allowances, children's allowances, scholarships, disability allowances, and allowances received after the death of one's provider.
Also exempt from distraint are two-thirds of the average net salary, and if a person's income is below the amount of the average salary that is exempt from distraint, two-thirds of that income are exempt from distraint.
These regulations, however, do not refer to persons against whom distraint proceedings were launched before the entry into force of the new Law on Distraint of Money Incomes (1 January 2011).
FINA officials did not state the most frequent reasons for distraint (unpaid utility bills, TV subscription, etc), citing business ethics and client data confidentiality, and they also would not reveal by whom distraint proceedings were initiated most frequently.
A member of the consumer protection association "Potrosac", Jadranka Kolarevic, said that under the new law on distraint of money incomes, launching distraint proceedings did not require the debtor's consent. As a result of that, debtors are often unaware that distraint proceedings have been launched against them, which is why they do not challenge them, she said, adding that another problem were high costs of distraint proceedings.
Under the new law on distraint of money incomes, all claims for payment are sent to FINA, which keeps a single register of accounts. That electronic database contains all information on the bank accounts of corporate bodies, units of local self-government, the Croatian National Bank and other banks, as well as on personal bank accounts, which was not the case before.
