The Committee discussed the Bill initiated by the Government on State Property with the II reading introduced by the Deputy Economic Minister, Nino Enukidze.

All the remarks expressed at the preceding readings are shared in the Bill. Paragraph 3 of Article 49¹ is reformulated as follows: “In the event of delegation of the state property for use by privatization in the form of the auction after December 31, 2012, the hereof Article shall not apply the price of the delegation for the privatization use and hence, the penalty in case of the non-payment”, - N. Enukidze stated.

Article 49³ is as well reformulated and includes the pandemic in the current edition. Pursuant to the Bill, the Government is entitled to grant the delegation to the respective structure – property manager – to at own discretion implement the pardoning and modification of the agreement. The Government is to establish a certain term for the counteragents to require the changes to the agreement due to the pandemic and modification of the conditions.

The Bill assigns the Government to, within the term of 3 months, adopt the state resolution on the remedies towards the property users.

The Chair of the Committee, David Songulashvili introduced the Bill on Competition.

“The Competition Agency should establish and operate the Supervisory Council this year. However, due to the pandemic, we abstain from any excessive budgetary expenses and thus, we raised the mediation to postpone the set-up by two years. We shall take maximal care of our resources and direct them to the key tasks”, - he stated.

The Chair of the Agrarian Issues Committee, Nino Tsilosani introduced the Bill on Food/Forage Safety, Veterinary and Plant Protection Code, aiming at specification and regulation of certain issues.

The Bill specifies certain terms, including the term “small business” and establishes the explanation of the business status. The Bill regulates the veterinary as a regulated profession and specifies the term “veterinary doctor and veterinary technician”. It introduces the term “spirits” and envisages stricter responsibilities for certain violations, establishes new responsibilities concerning misleading information about child nutrition and infant food, as well as increases the sanctions for other offenses.

“We were particularly non-loyal to the penalties when already warned subject repeats the offense. Hence, we included the stricter sanctions”, - the reporter noted.

The changes establish the audit rules for the business operators with the HACCP system.

The Chair of the Agrarian Committee also introduced the draft organic law on Windbreak (Shelter) Belts, creating the basis for the development of the state policy, establishing the legal relations for restoration, maintenance and protection of the windbreak belts.

“This initiative means a wider vision of agrarian policy deriving that the restoration and arrangement of the windbreaks protect the soil from the wind erosion and besides, it is related to the improvement of the productivity of the non-perennial cultures”, - the reporter noted.

According to her, the state shall deliver the windbreak belt to the municipality or farmers and shall assign them to maintain it. Pursuant to the Bill, the owner shall issue the approval upon the discovery of the windbreak belts.

The Bill also stipulates the sanctions for the damage and cut of the green plants. “The termination of the status is admitted only in a special situation, and this situation shall exceed a very important benefit of the windbreaks. The Law shall become effective on the 15th day upon promulgation other than the Articles requiring certain works for their preparation”, - N. Tsilosani added.

The windbreak shall be restored in a manner to gain the commercial benefit as well.

The Committee discussed the Letter-Agreement of the Change N3 to the Financial Agreement between Georgia and EIB of August 20, 2013 (water infrastructure restoration, project II) introduced by the First Deputy Finance Minister, Giorgi Kakauridze.

The project envisages the rehabilitation of water supply systems in 23 cities within 2014-2016. The necessity of additional works was outlined at the stage of design, entailing the extension of the terms. Hence, the changes have been introduced to the Agreement establishing the deadline for the transfer of the loan as of August 20, 2018.

“31.6 ml EURO out of 40 has already been transferred. 8.4 ml EURO is remaining. The Agreement has already been expired, which impedes the transfer, though, we have already consumed about 11.6 ml GEL from the budget in the form of overdraft and we now need a change to the agreement to allow the transfer of the consumed amount”, - the reporter noted.

The Committee approved the documents.