The government has approved the parliament’s draft bill development plan for 2019.
Forbes collected the notable new draft laws that are worth paying attention that are due to be discussed in the parliament this spring:
1. Draft Law Concerning Electronic Commerce
According to the draft law, work related to information public services will be regulated, as will the responsibilities of the providers and receivers of this service and terms and conditions related to electronic contracts made for the purposes of this law. Work procedures related to public information services, providers, and receivers will be laid out as well, along with their rights and responsibilities, mediator service provider’s responsibilities for during processing information, cashing, and hosting. The adoption of the law is determined based on the obligations assumed within DCFTA in the field of Interim Service Provision (ISP) and their obligation to lay out rights and responsibilities.
2. Draft Law on Financial Lien, Mutual Payoffs and Derivatives
The draft law covers matters in relation to the establishment of all the necessary regulatory legal frameworks for writing off payments, financial lien and derivatives, creating more guarantees on negotiations on financial market, acquiring more legal guarantees for transactions made on financial markets, and offering complex mechanisms for risk hedging residents. The draft law explains that the development of financial markets simultaneously creates new risks that are associated with investors as well as policy makers. Consequently, it is important to appreciate, evaluate, and manage such risks and derivative instruments can provide this; interest rates, currency rates, prices of raw materials, and food prices are all subject to price fluctuation and in order to manage these risks the existence of a derivative market is necessary.
3. Draft Law on Investment Funds
Investment fund development represents an important part of capital market reform. Currently, the existing law does not cover the creation, operation, and regulations of various aspects of investment funds. The draft law determines types of funds that can be regulated and alternative foundations, administration rules, and the basis for the state regulation system, as well as regulating relationships in this sector. According to the bill, the law of investment funds will allow the issuers and investors to get the full range of financial services based on modern technologies.
4. Draft law on the Introduction of Activities Related to Trade Anti-dumping
The draft law defines the principle of the introduction of anti-dumping measures in foreign trade, as well as the basic rules for conducting special research and the body authorized to carry out the research, under conditions of dumping imports on the customs territory of Georgia. The draft law introduces the preliminary and special anti-dumping tariff on dumping imports.
5. Draft law on the Rehabilitation and Collective Satisfaction of Creditors
The need for the development of this draft law came up as a result of errors in the existing Georgian law on Insolvency Proceedings. The current edition of the law does not divide the scope of the authority for the manager of the rehabilitation and the director of the enterprise, The bankruptcy manager is not obliged to find the property trustee, there is no possibility to transition the bankruptcy process into the rehabilitation process, and the property remaining after the bankruptcy will fall into the ownership of the state or LEPL – the National Bureau of Enforcement instead of to partners and in some cases the rights of unsecured creditors are neglected.
6. The Law on RIA
The purpose of this draft law is to make an application on a legislative level for the introduction of a Regulatory Impact Assessment System in the current legislative process of Georgia. The Regulatory Impact Assessment System should provide a comprehensive study of the issue before the legislative amendment, support state representatives in making the right choice based on evidence, and find the most effective ways to solve existing problems. To this end, changes have to be made to the Normative Acts of the Organic Law of Georgia and an institutional framework should be developed that will make the evaluation of the impact of regulations a mandatory element in the lawmaking process.
7. Draft Law on License and Permission Fees
This draft law envisions the taxation of different types of permit fees on first regarding the territory of Daba Grigoleti in the Lanchkhuti Municipality, the Ureki territory of the Ozurgeti Municipality, and construction of a casino in Poti and secondly concerns the release from payment of permit fees on the set up of a casino on the territory of the newly constructed hotels with no less than 80 rooms in Grigoleti, Ureki and Poti throughout the 10 years that come after issuing a permit. The purpose of the draft law is to improve the gap in the gambling market in the town of Ureki and Ozurgeti Municipality, in the village of Grigoleti in Lanchkhuti Municipality, and in the town of Poti.
8. Draft Law on the Certification of Bus Terminals
This draft law considers the introduction of new permit terms for bus station certificates and passenger carrier operators. The amendment to the Law on Licenses and Permits is to introduce two universal types of permits: permits for motor passenger transportation and permits for the transportation of motor cargo. Upon the acquisition of the permit, the transporter will be able to carry out the transportation within and outside of the country through both regular or irregular transportation.
9. Amendments to the Georgian Law on Securities Market
This draft law introduces a new mechanism of alternative finance funding: the Crowd Funding Institute. This amendment is based on the following circumstances: 1. Supporting startups on financing through a Proposed and Progressive Methodology 2. Promote the development of the securities market.
10. Amendment to the Law on Private Security Activities
This draft law was developed in response to the need to implement changes in the law in relation to private security activities licensing that redefines the licence issuer and controlling bodies. The need to draft new regulations on this matter came up as a result of the constitutional court decision held on 14 December 2018, according to which several clauses in the Private Security Activity Law were determined to be unconstitutional, namely the coexistence of two functions of the police department under the Ministry of Internal Affairs: security guard activities and private security guard control functions.
According to the amendments, the private security license will no longer be issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and instead will be issued by one of the legal entities of public law under the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
