Lower house of parliament approves legal acts on bankruptcy

A draft law "On Changes and Amendments in Several Legislative Acts on Bankruptcy" has been approved by deputies of the mazhilis (parliament's lower house) at a plenary meeting of the house today, September 28, KZ-today correspondent reports from Astana.

"These changes and amendments are required by a necessity to prevent law breaches," - Askar Amrin, vice finance minister, has said presenting the draft law to deputies..

He has explained that the draft law suggests an introduction of an institute of external supervision over the bankruptcy procedure to provide safety of the debtor's property, reveal evidences of a deliberate bankruptcy, analyse financial condition of the debtor and his/her actions to avoid performance of commitments before his/her creditors and to strike deals on alienation of basic funds.

The introduced changes prolong the term of bankruptcy proceedings from 6 to 9 months. According to A. Amrin, "it is necessary to increase the number of the bankruptcy proceedings to satisfy requirements of creditors more fully - actional court activities on the levy of debts on the return of the unfoundedly withdrawn property and payment of debts to creditors."

Besides, the draft law provides an opportunity to prolong rehabilitation procedures for strategically important for the national economy organisations by two years in addition to the current two years. A. Amrin has explained that big ventures "as a rule have big amounts of debts, whose payment requires a long time. The suggested novelties will promote suppression of deliberate and fake bankruptcy and resolution of problems related with bankruptcy," - he has stressed.

The draft law has been passed to a mazhilis profile committee to prepare it for the second reading.