The Serbian government adopted at its session yesterday measures for mitigating the consequences of the current drought, such as relieving agricultural producers of certain financial obligations or extending the deadline for their payment.
Other measures include interventions on the market to ensure stability of supply and prices, as well as financial help to farmers by increasing incentives.
These measures enable an additional grace period of one year for subsidised short and long term agricultural loans, during which farmers will not pay off the principal and will continue paying the interest only.
Registered farms are exempted from the payment of fees for drainage and irrigation in 2011 and 2012.
The government decided that the Directorate for commodity reserves should buy under emergency procedure 200,000 tonnes of maize from the local market in order to fill strategic reserves, and the tariffs and levies on imports of all types of crops will be temporarily abolished until the next harvest.
The government and the relevant ministries will monitor the export of all kinds of grains and in the event of exports that would significantly endanger the supply of the domestic market, appropriate measures will be taken.
The incentives for cattle growing will be increased from the current RSD 5,000 per head to RSD 10,000, and for pigs from the current RSD 500 per head to RSD 1,000 by the end of the year.
The incentive for milk production will be increased from the current RSD 5 per litre to RSD 7 for the third and fourth quarters of this year, and by year-end the number of beneficiaries of the incentives for genetic improvement of livestock will be increased by dropping the eligibility criteria.
The Serbian government adopted a decree which releases 35 sectors from the obligation of having cash registers.
The obligation of registering transactions through fiscal cash registers will be abolished, among others, for shops that offer hairdressing, beautician’s, photography and taxi services, for car repair shops, for dry cleaners, funeral services, the repair of electrical and electronic equipment, household appliances and furniture, as well as for artisans involved in construction activities and maintenance of buildings and the environment.
The Serbian government decided on the highest prices of prescription drugs for use in human medicine and adopted a rule book on the list of drugs that are prescribed and dispensed at the expense of the mandatory health insurance.
These decisions will prevent shortages of medicines and will enable a drop in prices for 160 drugs.
Source Serbia Gov.
