At today’s session, the Government of Serbia adopted the Draft Law on the Budget for 2023, which foresees total revenues and benefits in the amount of 1,843.4 billion dinars, which is 133.8 billion dinars, that is, 7.8 percent more than on the amount of income foreseen by the budget rebalancing for the year 2022.
Tax revenues are planned, as stated in the press release, in the amount of 1,592.8 billion dinars, and non-tax revenues in the amount of 200.1 billion dinars, including own revenues of indirect budget beneficiaries.
In the structure of total revenues, tax revenues amount to 86.4 percent, while non-tax revenues amount to 10.9 percent of the total revenues of the Serbian budget. The rest is made up of donations in the amount of 50.5 billion dinars, which is 2.7 percent of total revenues.
The budget proposal for 2023 foresees total expenses and expenditures in the amount of 2,107.4 billion dinars.
The estimated level of public debt at the level of the general government is decreasing and will remain at the level of 56.1 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) until the end of 2023, according to the announcement.
Next year’s GDP growth is expected to be 2.5 percent.
At today’s session, amendments to the Law on Electronic Invoicing were adopted, which specify the existing provisions and additionally harmonize them with the existing legal framework, so that the e-invoice system would function even better.
Today, the Government of Serbia adopted amendments to the Law on Property Taxes, which harmonized the subject of taxation with inheritance and gift tax and the tax on the transfer of absolute rights with the types of immovable property that can be subject to turnover, which is why it also includes the transfer of the right to permanently use parking spaces in open residential block or residential complex and specifying the occurrence of tax liability in specific cases.
Amendments to the Law on Personal Income Tax and the Law on Contributions for Mandatory Social Security were adopted.
It is planned to increase the non-taxable amount of salary from 19,300 dinars to 21,712 dinars per month, reduce the contribution rate for pension and disability insurance from 25 to 24 percent, and regulate the taxation of natural persons who earn income from copyright and related rights and contracted fees for work performed on which the tax is pays through self-taxation.
The Government also adopted amendments to the Law on Tax Procedure and Tax Administration in order to bring it into line with the provisions of the law governing personal income tax, fiscalization, as well as the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the introduction of new criminal offenses that are important for combating evasion of public payments income.
Also, amendments to the law on pension insurance were adopted, which proposed a change in the method of harmonizing the amount of pensions.
It is foreseen that the method of calculating the percentage of adjustment of pensions is determined depending on the ratio of the amount of pensions paid and the monetary amount as an increase with the pension according to the amount of the gross domestic product.
Depending on the amount of that ratio, it is proposed that pensions be adjusted from January of the following year in one of three ways: according to the movement of wages, the movement of consumer prices, or by taking into account half the percentage of the change in wages and half the percentage of the change in consumer prices.
As explained, in this way it is ensured that the growth of pensions follows the growth of wages in periods when the share of expenditure on pensions and the monetary amount as an increase with pension in the gross domestic product is lower, and in periods when that share is higher, the purchasing power of pensions is ensured adjustment according to consumer prices.
The amended and supplemented proposals of the Law on Value Added Tax, the Law on Fiscalization, and the Law on Republic Administrative Fees were adopted at the session.
The government also adopted an amendment to the Regulation on the distribution of incentives in agriculture and rural development in 2022, which increased the budget of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management for this year by 16.5 billion dinars to 78.5 billion dinars, which represents almost 5 .3 percent of the tax revenues of the Serbian budget.
An additional 7.7 billion dinars were provided for direct payments related to the milk premium, basic incentives for plant production and incentives in animal husbandry, and 2.87 billion dinars for rural development measures.
The session adopted amendments to the Regulation on establishing a program of financial support for agricultural producers of sunflowers in 2022, which should provide financial support to agricultural producers in order to preserve the stability of their income.
Bearing in mind the movement of sunflower prices on the market and their negative impact on the producer’s income, as well as high production costs, funds in the amount of 4.86 billion dinars have been secured, which will be used for the implementation of the Financial Support Program for agricultural producers of this oilseed for the year 2022.Â
The members of the government passed the Decision on the temporary ban on the export of Euro diesel EN 590 in order to prevent a critical shortage of that derivative caused by the global and regional disruption in the market, and with the aim of ensuring a safe supply of the Serbian market.
The Government of Serbia also adopted the amended Regulation on establishing the program for the allocation of grants for the purchase of a country house with a garden in the territory of Serbia for the year 2022, and 1.08 billion dinars were allocated for this purpose, Beta writes.
