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initiating bankruptcy proceedings, costs of bankruptcy proceedings
in the course of bankruptcy proceedings and obligations
regarding the bankruptcy estate are precisely defined.
Probably the most intriguing novelty is the ex officio initiation
of the bankruptcy proceedings by a bankruptcy judge,
based on the information received by the Enforced Collection
Department of the National Bank of Serbia i.e. bankruptcy
proceedings are initiated automatically for all companies
whose accounts have been blocked for three years
in a row (for companies that fulfil this condition until the
end of 2010), for all companies whose accounts have been
blocked for two years in a row (for companies that meet
this condition in 2010 until the end of 2011) and also for all
companies whose accounts have been blocked for one year
in a row. The Department is obliged to provide the courts
on a monthly basis with reports on the companies whose
accounts have been blocked for the prescribed number of
years, so that bankruptcy proceedings can be initiated.
Another novelty introduced by the Law is the reorganisation
plan, which is prepared in advance and submitted
together with the proposal for initiating bankruptcy proceedings.
The institution of “silent creditors” has introduced a solution
for the situation when the creditors’ committee is inactive
and fails to respond to receiver’s proposals, and now the
proposal is to be accepted if the committee fails to respond
within the specified period. The Law has reintroduced the
statute of limitations for reporting creditors’ claims. The
limitation period is now specified by the bankruptcy judge,
subject to the circumstances of the case, within the legally
defined period of 30 to 120 days from the day of initiating
bankruptcy proceedings.
The envisaged penalties for violating the provisions of the
Law include imprisonment from one to five years and fines
ranging between RSD 500,000 and RSD 10 million.
With regard to the procedure for the sale of a bankruptcy
debtor as a legal entity, when the legal entity has retained
its legal personality (i.e. its capacity of a legal entity), while
the founder or the owner of the company has changed, the
buyer of the legal entity (the bankruptcy debtor) is regis-
tered as its founder, i.e. its shareholder or stakeholder, and
acquires ownership rights in line with the Company Law.
One of the most important characteristics of a bankruptcy
debtor, following the sale of the debtor as a legal entity, is
that the bankruptcy proceedings in relation to the debtor
are terminated; however, the proceedings continue in relation
to the bankruptcy estate represented by the receiver,
for the purpose of discharging debts to creditors, while
the proceeds from the sale of the debtor are included in
the bankruptcy estate. In accordance with the Law on the
Registration of Business Entities, the Register of Bankruptcy
Estate has been formed and can be found on the official
website of the Serbian Business Registers Agency.
The application of the Insolvency Law, along with the promotion
of receiver profession, is additionally encouraged by
a set of by-laws that have been brought into force based on
the Insolvency Law, in particular: (a) Rulebook on the basis
and criteria for determining remuneration and compensation
for costs of the receiver (Official Gazette of the Republic
of Serbia, No. 1/2011), (b) Rulebook on the programme
and manner of passing professional exam for performing
receiver activities (Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia,
No. 47/2010), (c) Regulation governing the manner of conducting
professional supervision of licensed bankruptcy
administrators (Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia,
No. 35/2010), (d) Regulation on the conditions and manner
of selection of bankruptcy administrators by random selection
method (Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No.
3/2010), (e) Regulation establishing the national standards
for administering the bankruptcy estate (Official Gazette
of the Republic of Serbia, No. 13/2010), (f) Rulebook on the
manner of issue and renewal of license for pursuing the profession
of a bankruptcy receiver (Official Gazette Republic of
Serbia, No. 22/2010), (g) Regulation governing the conduct
of reorganisation procedure under a pre-packaged plan of
reorganisation and the content of the pre-packaged plan of
reorganization (Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No.
37/ 2010) (h) Decree on the content of, method of registering
and of keeping the Bankruptcy Estate Register (Official
Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, no. 4/2010,) i) Decree оn
the type and rates of fees for registration and other services
provided by the Business Registers Agency in the process of
administering the bankruptcy estate (Official Gazette of the
Republic of Serbia, No. 4/2010).
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