News

Until the end of the year, the state will not pay debts on court decisions

19 May 2020

Stas Karpov

Attorney, counsel ADER HABER Law Firm

What should the debtor do if the court has collected money from him, and for one reason or another he is not ready to pay it yet? Alternatively, you can apply the court to defer the execution of the decision. But it turns out there are simpler solutions. True, they are available only to one and very special debtor – the state.

 

As is known, the execution of decisions on the recovery of funds from the state and local budgets is carried out exclusively by the bodies of the State Treasury Service of Ukraine (part 2 of article 6 of the Law of Ukraine “On Enforcement Proceedings”). The corresponding powers are provided for in paragraph 1 of article 25 of the Budget Code of Ukraine, according to which the State Treasury Service of Ukraine carries out the undisputed write-off of the state and local budgets on the basis of a court decision.

However, the recently adopted Law of Ukraine “On Amending the Law of Ukraine «On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2020 ”No. 553-IX of 04/13/2020, the Parliament suspended until January 1, 2021 the application of the aforementioned article of the Budget Code of Ukraine.

During the debate on the bill, this small amendment remained out of the public eye, while everyone focused on cutting spending on culture and education, as well as regular attempts to resolve the issue of exemption from rent.

Perhaps the authors were counting on this, since from now until the end of this year, the State Treasury Service of Ukraine, in fact, has been deprived of its authority to indisputably write off state and local budget funds on the basis of a court decision.

Now, even with a court decision in force on the recovery of funds from the budget and the relevant executive document, it will be impossible to receive the amounts due.

To date, the State Treasury Service of Ukraine, as before, continues to accept documents for payment, but does not make payments themselves, but only forms a queue of such applicants. It remains only to guess how many applications and how much will accumulate by the beginning of next year, as well as how much time it will take for the state to pay off all its debts.

So, by adopting just one amendment, you can free yourself for the next six months from almost all monetary obligations by court decisions.

As an exception, only cases provided for in paragraph 2 of article 25 of the Budget Code of Ukraine, which remains in force and according to which compensation for harm caused to an individual or legal entity as a result of illegally taken decisions, actions or inaction of state authorities, as well as their officials and employees, may serve persons carried out by the state in the manner prescribed by law.

But here, not everything is clear, since the issue of compensation for harm is settled by the provisions of the Procedure for the execution of decisions on the recovery of state and local budgets or debtors, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 845 of 08/03/2011, which provide for compensation for harm through the same undisputed write-off funds, which, as a rule, is carried out on the basis of a court decision.

Therefore, in this part, with the recovery of funds from the budgets, problems may also arise.

At the same time, the State Treasury Service of Ukraine in its letters regarding the above circumstances refers to the need to suspend the undisputed write-off of funds on the basis of subparagraph 4 of paragraph 13 of the above Procedure, which provides for the possibility of suspension in the presence of “other circumstances prescribed by law.” The validity of such actions also raises great doubts, since the existing circumstances are not provided by law as a basis for the suspension of indisputable write-offs, although they paralyze its further implementation.

I think that the illegality of such actions by the state is more than obvious. While the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine directly impose obligations on the state to execute judicial decisions, the state acts in its own interests exactly the opposite.

Related news
ADER HABER – КАР’ЄРНИЙ ПАРТНЕР НАЦІОНАЛЬНОГО УНІВЕРСИТЕТУ ІМ. ТАРАСА ШЕВЧЕНКА
ADER HABER – LEGAL ADVISOR TO SIGMUND FREUD UNIVERSITY UKRAINE
ON MULTIPLE CITIZENSHIP (DRAFT LAW №10425)