By 2 January the Ministry of Finance received a total of 1,472 pre-bankruptcy settlement applications from ailing companies that owe more than HRK 20 billion and employ nearly 16,000 workers, Finance Minister Slavko Linic said on Thursday at the first cabinet meeting in 2013.
This is less than the 20,000 applications we expected but points out that most companies were insolvent and were accumulating debts because owners had abandoned them, transferred property and employers and set up new companies leaving their debts behind, Linic said.
The government is faced with clearing up HRK 44 billion unpaid invoices while at the same time protecting the rights of creditors and the state.
Along with other creditors, the government will try and help companies that have applied for pre-bankruptcy settlement in an attempt to salvage them and to clear existing debts, he said.
