If the Government fails to pay instalments for the ships of the Crnogorska plovidba and Barska plovidba maritime companies in about 15 days, there is a danger that state guarantees will be activated and that the Chinese Exim Bank will collect the entire amount of debt of these shipping companies, the Pobjeda daily writes.
These companies have €66 Million of debt, and it is almost quite certain that not event this year they will be able to repay the instalments on the loan. The Barska plovidba company has announced to the Pobjeda that they will most probably lack €3M needed to pay two instalments due this year. The Ministry of Finance and Social Welfare have not over the past two days responded to the Pobjeda’s question as to will the Government pay the instalments for the ships and is such a thing possible, as the Decision on temporary financing has been made and the annual budget for this year has not yet been adopted.
As the Pobjeda has found out, in case that instalments are not paid within the time due, the Chinese would most probably first send a warning to the Government or would provide a new deadline, and in communication with the Government representatives maybe wait a month or two for the instalments to be paid, but that does not eliminate the risk that the Exim bank might not later than this month decide to charge the total debt and activate the state guarantees. The Montenegrin shipping companies do not believe that the ships will be repossessed, as the vessels are not under the mortgage.
Recall that the Government on 24 December 2020 announced a possible and pessimistic scenario that Montenegro could lose its ships in a month, because the maritime companies were not able to repay debts from their own funds, and were dependent on the state aid.
