Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
The head of the parliamentary committee on fiscal and financial affairs, David Onoprishvili, initiated the establishment of a governmental commission on studying the issue of deposits in Soviet banks.
Georgia was thought to be one of the richest republics in the USSR. The fertile land which enabled gathering harvest two times a year, exotic for the rest of the country citrus crops and many other aspects encouraged accumulation of deposits. However, Soviet citizens didn’t know what devaluation of deposits or bankruptcy of banks was.
The happiness of Georgian citizens ended suddenly: in April 1991 after the adoption of the Declaration on Independence, which saw problems with recovering deposits. Some people were smart to draw money out of account books; but the majority didn’t want to realize casual relationships between the voting for independence on the pan-national referendum on March 31, 1991, and certain losses for each family. People didn’t want to understand that independence needed sacrifices.
The return of the former secretary of the Central Committee of Communist Party of the Georgian SSR, Eduard Shevardnadze, to his homeland in the middle of the civil war was accepted as “a return of good old times,” but without rejection of independence. Of course Shevardnadze did nothing to dispel this dangerous illusion. In 1993 he initiated the law which recognized Soviet deposits an internal debt of the state. 20 years passed by. No rubles, dollars, lari were returned, but the country still has powerful lobby of “Soviet depositors” who constantly remind the authorities on “historic duties.”
Probably it was the reason for the initiative by David Onoprishvili who used to be the minister of finances, but never mentioned Soviet deposits. He began to speak about it only after the victory of Georgian Dream in the parliamentary elections. Ivanishvili understood clearly the difficulty of the problem, but a hope for settling it was in the air and the new team couldn’t ignore it.
Georgian experts told Vestnik Kavkaza about their views on returning Soviet deposits.
Georgy Khukhashvili, senior ally of the Prime Minister
Restoration of historic justice is an important issue. This duty was taken by the authorities once upon a time. On the other side, this issue is very complicated from technical and financial points of view. Can the country fulfill this duty? But state duties cannot be ignored. Losses must be compensated.
An important theme is how to index deposits. If it is done to the maximum, i.e. considering inflation, there is no state, even the richest state, which can cope with this task. But if we find “the happy medium”, the losses can be compensated during a long period of time. I hope the government will present a certain project and it will be discussed effectively.
It is difficult to appraise the volume of deposits. An expert who doesn’t deal with the theme intensively cannot give an appropriate answer to this question. One thing is obvious - the government has to present a realistic scheme.
Joseph Tsiskarishvili, expert
The administration President Shevardnadze recognized the deposits which were lost by citizens an internal debt. The state must respect itself and fulfill its duties. There are many interesting schemes of settlement of the problem today. Everybody agrees that the sums should be paid during a long period. I talked to one of initiative groups. They suggest recovering of accounts in the form of securities of enterprises which will be founded. Instead of paying income tax, enterprises could pay sums to a special “fund of compensation to depositors.” This model requires that enterprises don’t take part in the process actually: they pay taxes to the state budget. Of course it concerns only enterprises which will be founded after 2014.
Kakha Bendukidze, the former state minister on economic and structural reform
It is simple populism! No comments anymore.
