Even after less than 12 hours of blockade of parts of Belgrade on Wednesday, from TC Usce, through Slavija to Gazela, market sellers were not admitted to the meeting with President Aleksandar Vucic, but such a meeting was promised for Saturday.
From May 1, all those who sell goods on the market, and are not producers, must have fiscal cash registers. Market vendors are asking that their cash registers not be introduced because they will “fail”.
Their request was the only one at the big last protest before the elections. None of the protests of thousands of sellers has borne fruit so far, and they do not know what to expect from the president.
The sellers may find out on Saturday whether Vučić’s point is followed by a comma from Vučić. For now, they do not believe that anything will change.
There was not much talk today at the Kalenić market about the big protest that blocked the central streets of Belgrade during the day on Wednesday. They know that they have to have cash registers and they do not believe that the producers will be spared. Although Mali emphasized that the producers will not have that obligation, the sellers in Kalenić are not so sure.
“I don’t believe anything, why would they make a difference. If they introduce them, they will introduce them all equally “, says the apple seller in Kalenić.
Petrit Redzep from the Association of Market Sellers Survival, who was waiting in front of the Presidency for a meeting on Wednesday, is quite sure that he knows what awaits them after May 1.
“If they introduce fiscal cash registers, 50 percent of them will give up on May 1, 50 percent will give up after a month, two to three, because it is impossible to work in these conditions.” “Most of them will not be able to survive, because we still have big obligations, even if we add accountants who are from 120 to 150 euros, we will not be able to withstand this business,” Redzep told Danas.
If the markets shut down, he notes, the entire chain of small producers will be endangered because they cannot “place it on Lidl or Maxi”.
Rexhep has been in this business for 40 years and lists his expenses.
“We pay 16,280 dinars a month in Belgrade, I have two, plus taxes and contributions for health, social and pension. “Two stalls with taxes cost me more than 50,000 dinars a month, which is not a small amount, if we add bookkeepers and the introduction of items in the cash register, then monthly cash register maintenance, and another 1,800 dinars for the Internet – a lot has accumulated,” said Petrit Rexhep.
The introduction of cash registers does not apply to producers, and Redzep says that there are only five percent of them in Serbia.
“And so many if there are. Because it is not possible for someone to have peppers, carrots, cabbage, tomatoes for 12 months. “We will not give up on the request not to introduce fiscal cash registers, and we will see what will happen at the meeting,” he points out.
Recep says that they will ask the state, if it is heard, for a special status for markets and market vendors, as well as to enable them to reprogram the debt they have for contributions.
“A large number of people are in debt for taxes and contributions, purchasing power has changed, jobs and turnover are decreasing and many of them are in debt, and we are asking for approval of the reprogram,” said Recep, adding that tens of thousands of people work in the market. up to 50,000 of them, and certainly 200,000 citizens of Serbia depend on their activities.
He says that introducing cash registers on the market is crazy, and in the first place, the spirit of the market, bargaining and the tradition of market sales are being killed.
“There is another important thing, and that is the technical characteristic of the cash register that it does not work at temperatures below zero and above 40 degrees, and we are working on minus 10 and minus five, how will it work then. If I work at minus five, the cash register fails, an inspector comes and fines me 50,000 dinars because I could not issue an invoice, “our interlocutor emphasizes.
“They will build shopping malls, they will put several stalls of producers on the ground floor, and airplanes, trucks upstairs, and social cases on the street, everything indicates that,” notes Petrit Rexhep.
Petar Bogosavljevic from the Consumer Movement of Belgrade says for Danas that the introduction of cash registers on the markets will reduce the offer, but that it will not significantly affect consumers, because market sellers make up a small percentage of the total offer. What seems to him to be a good argument against the introduction of cash registers are the difficult conditions for that on the markets.
The number of sellers, he believes, will not decrease significantly because there are a lot of those who have no choice, they have to deal with the team, that is how they feed their families.
“I don’t think they should be pressured, because even small producers who have no one else to sell to depend on them.” It should be paid, but another mechanism should be made. Part of the income, and I think that is the main motive – to increase the income in the budget, has already been partially paid to the primary producer, there remains a small part, VAT, which should be collected from sellers, but it could be solved as a lump sum. an example “, suggests Bogosavljevic.
Market sellers were also talked about as unfair competition, and that is one of the reasons why they are being introduced into the fiscalization system, but Bogosavljevic thinks that is not the reason, because market sellers are not so numerous. The main motive, he says, is to maximize budget revenues.
Whoever sells his own does not have to have a cash register
Explaining who will have to have a cash register from May 1, and who does not, the Minister of Finance Siniša Mali said that those who sell their products on the markets will not be obliged to fiscalize.
“A distinction should be made, individual agricultural producers, who sell fruits and vegetables that they produce on their own, are not subject to fiscalization. By law, they should not have a fiscal cash register. “Fiscal cash registers will have to have them sell consumer goods,” said Mali, Danas reports.
