Court Imposes Foreign Travel Ban on Those Who Fail to Pay Their Electricity Bills

VLADIVOSTOK. December 11. VOSTOK-MEDIA – Since the beginning of 2009, employees at the energy vendor Dalenergosbyt, a branch of Far Eastern Energy Company JSC, have submitted about 17,000 applications to the Federal Bailiff Service requesting to impose temporary foreign travel ban on those Russian nationals, who failed to settle their electricity bills and made no attempt to discharge their debts.

The Federal Bailiff Service, in its turn, pursuant to article 67 of the Law On Enforcement Procedures decides on every consumer, who failed to pay electricity bill, regarding to whether to impose temporary foreign travel ban. Then, the Bailiff Service forwards the list of debtors to the Federal Border Service and Passport and Visa Service. At this point the non-payers cannot cross the border any longer.

In this event the right to leave Russia will be circumscribed in all border control checkpoints in the country. If a debtor tries to leave the country border guards will stop him at a checkpoint and send back home and excuses like expensive travel package or spoiled holidays are of no use. In compliance with the Federal Legislation, the debtor’s passport will be withdrawn until the debt is settled and the resolution on the termination of enforcement proceedings is issued.

The measure seems to be very effective. It was the wish to travel abroad that urged two residents of Spassk-Dalny, Primorsky Krai, to settle their electricity bills. While planning upcoming trips they found out that court bailiff had issued orders imposing foreign travel ban on them and forwarded the orders to Frontier Service. The court ruling prompted them to settle their debts right away.

The Federal Law Concerning the Procedure for Exit from the Russian Federation and Entry into the Russian Federation dated August 15, 1996, stipulates imposing temporary foreign travel ban if a debtor fails to fulfill his obligations imposed by the court. The legitimacy of this measure was confirmed by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in February, 2005. It was stressed in the court ruling that the ban does not violate the constitutional right to free exit from the country since the ruling aims at ensuring the constitutional rights of those Russian citizens in behalf of whom a court order was issued.

Dalenergosbyt recommends that those electricity consumers planning to vacation abroad settle their utility bills beforehand. The ban will be lifted once the debt is settled in full, press service of Dalenergosbyt reports.