The position of the Fiscal Council is that the national airline Air Serbia should be restructured, not forced into bankruptcy, but it is crucial to determine the situation in that company publicly and accurately, and for it to operate transparently in the future, said the president of the Fiscal Council Pavle Petrovic.
At the session of the Assembly Committee for Finance, Republic Budget and Control of Spending of Public Funds, Petrovic assessed that the Fiscal Council, as well as the general public, can only guess how much taxpayers’ money will be allocated to help Air Serbia, and that the Council estimates that it will in 2020 and 2021 will amount to 200 million euros.
“Our estimate is that less than 50 percent of those costs are caused by pandemics. Since 2015, Air Serbia has shown book profits, but when state grants are excluded, it can be seen that it recorded a loss, and that it borrowed twice. 50 million euros each at Etihad Partners this year and next, plus 20 million euros for transaction costs, at a high interest rate of 7 percent,” Petrovic warned.
He assessed that from the rebalance of the budget for 2020 and the draft budget for 2021, it can be concluded that the state will pay off the debts of Air Serbia, apparently according to the model used for Srbijagas, ie that the state takes over the debts and then pays them off for years.
Petrovic said that the position of the Fiscal Council is that Air Serbia should be restructured, and not forced into bankruptcy, but that the precondition for that is to determine the role of Etihad’s strategic partner, and that Air Serbia will operate transparently in the future.
“Air Serbia does not publish a financial report on its website, unlike the vast majority of airlines in the world. If it receives money from the state and taxpayers, its business should be transparent,” Petrovic emphasized, N1 reports.
