World Bulletin / News Desk

The Macedonian government is going to write off debts of desperate citizens who cannot pay their bills, namely credit card debts and consumer loans, a cabinet minister said on Monday.

Citizens who qualify for the program can request for their debts to be expunged by applying to the Social Affairs Center for the next 30 days said in a statement released from the Finance Ministry on Monday.

Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski said that the government had fulfilled a campaign promise to support people who could not pay their debts due to the global economic crisis.

This project was one of the more prominent initiatives of the new government's 2014-2018 program to address the problems of Macedonia's most vulnerable categories of citizens such as welfare and financial aid beneficiaries and the long-term unemployed.

The new government was elected after Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski proposed a new cabinet following his party's April 27 general election victory.

According to the program's guidelines, only citizens who receive social help from government, the long-term unemployed, people who lost a spouse in the last five years and the disabled will be able to apply.

A commission will evaluate the applications of over 100,000 citizens expected to apply.