There is interest for the government measure on debt write-off for which requests are being submitted starting Monday at social welfare centers. Nearly 2,000 requests have been filled out today by welfare beneficiaries.

"There is solid interest and the citizens are embracing the opportunity for one-time debt write-off," stated Deputy PM and Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski who visited a social welfare center in Skopje's Gazi Baba municipality together with Minister of Labour and Social Policy Dime Spasov.

The debt write-off, he added, is the fulfillment of a pre-election pledge and one of the most crucial measures of the government envisaged in its 2014-2018 program.

"I expect in the coming period more interest to be shown and social welfare centers and the commission, set up by the government, to conclude their activities in the interest of the citizens," Deputy PM Stavreski said.

The project will directly help cash-strapped citizens who are facing social risk, according to Minister Spasov.

The citizens who visited the social welfare center in Gazi Baba praised the government measure saying "it will help them make ends meet."

The measure aims at writing off debts of the three most vulnerable categories - welfare beneficiaries, unemployed individuals actively looking for a job for more than 12 months, and individuals exposed to social risk due to death of a spouse, handicap or serious disease over the past five years.

Outstanding debts up to 31 December 2013 on the grounds of spent electricity, heating, credit cards, exceeding of transaction accounts and loans, as well as broadcasting fee will be written off. The measure includes unpaid debts for more than one year, whereas a procedure for their payment needs to have been launched.

The entire procedure for the debt write-off is to end by November, with the number of citizens expected to apply ranging between 50,000 and 100,000.