Chairman of the Committee of the People’s Party for Economy and Entrepreneurship Vladimir Kovacevic said that the Serbian government’s economic measures to alleviate the coronavirus crisis caused the virus to “push back the best Serbia has”, that is, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
“Only those who owe nothing will receive help, and such assistance is generally not necessary. The Tax Administration will reduce the number of aid recipients due to previous period debts, unpaid interest and fees,” Kovacevic said.
Kovacevic said that workers’ salaries for March were paid this week and that assistance should therefore be sent immediately, not after a state of emergency.
“Government assistance is like sending someone on a road without gas in the tank and without money for a toll with the promise that they will be refunded when they return from the road. It is clear that he will neither go nor get anywhere, as will the Serbian economy with such measures,” Kovacevic said.
Commenting on the announced aid of 100 euros to all adult citizens, Kovacevic said that the People’s Party calls on all those who can pay for this help for the treatment of children with serious and rare diseases, adding that the delay in paying taxes on wages and contributions “is nowhere and never was an adequate help,” as those commitments will “only accumulate”.
“An economy exhausted with illiquidity and slowed down by reluctance will have to make additional efforts to settle these obligations, and only if it has additional jobs that no one can guarantee now, while, on the other hand, obligations are always guaranteed,” Kovacevic said.
He added that no guarantee would be a guarantee set of liquidity measures aimed at commercial banks without clear instructions on how to make loans easier.
“Commercial banks have so far been rigid about corporate loans. They always had their criteria for granting loans, so that will not change even now,” Kovacevic said, Danas reports.
