Last year, 549 public companies made a loss of five million euros, with 244 million euros in subsidies, while in 2018, public companies in total achieved a positive business result, according to the data of the Business Registers Agency. If there were no state subsidies, the losses would be much higher.
The profit of public companies, which are companies founded by the Republic of Serbia or local self-governments and which perform activities of public interest, grew significantly until 2017, when it reached 212 million euros. And then comes the downfall.
In 2018, the profit of this group of companies dropped to less than 30 million euros, and in 2019, a total of 549 companies ended in a deficit of slightly less than five million euros, according to the Annual Bulletin of Financial Statements for 2019 issued by the Business Registers Agency.
In this period, there were no unfavorable developments on the international financial market, on the contrary, money was never cheaper, so interest rates in Serbia continued to fall, while the dinar against the euro strengthened by more than four percent in nominal terms, and even more realistically. Most importantly, in 2018 and 2019, the Serbian economy recorded the highest GDP growth (4.4 and 4.2 percent) since 2008.
The structure of the results of public companies is such that the operating profit amounted to 162 million euros, the profit from financing amounted to 29 million euros, while the loss arose from other activities, which include revaluations of property values and other accounting categories in the amount of 172 million euros.
Based on this, a wrong conclusion could be drawn that companies are doing well because of the profit from business and financing, and that the so-called other result culprit for loss. However, the other result is in the smallest deficit in the last five years. The problem lies in the business of the company.
Namely, the operating profit is lower by 23% than in the previous year, and compared to 2016, when it amounted to 508 million euros, it is even three times lower. Since 2016, operating expenses have grown faster than operating revenues each year.
Authorities boasted that public companies were filling the budget, and on the other hand, their balance sheets were rushing back to losses, which had accumulated more than three billion euros in previous years.
To make matters worse, that profit from business does not really exist. Namely, subsidies to public companies last year amounted to 244 million euros.
According to the accounting regulations, subsidies are recorded as business income, and as we can see, if they did not exist, public companies would not have a profit from business, but a loss of around 80 million euros. The good news is that the amount of subsidies was reduced in 2019 by almost 100 million euros compared to 2018.
Although there are 549 companies in this group, their total result is determined by several huge companies such as EPS, Srbijagas or Putevi Srbije, Nova Ekonomija reports.
