The real consequences of the Covid – 19 pandemic on the Serbian economy are not yet visible because the losses are partly covered by state aid, loans and funds from personal reserves, said today the honorary president of the Union of Employers of Serbia, Nebojsa Atanackovic.
“Among the first companies that will be closed are the branches of foreign companies, because in that way employers will reduce business costs and losses,” Atanackovic said for Beta.
He added that in the current crisis, credit borrowings are a big risk for both the lender and the borrower, for which the state guarantees 80 percent of the amount of borrowings from commercial banks due to the uncertainty of the duration of the pandemic.
Banks do not easily approve those loans either, because, according to Atanackovic, they bear the risk that the remaining 20 percent of funds for which the state does not guarantee will not be returned.
Therefore, as he said, not all funds from the guarantee framework of two billion euros were spent, so a quarter of the funds remained unused.
According to the data of the Business Registers Agency (APR), in the last two months, 530 companies were deleted from the Register of Business Entities, and in the same period last year, 454 companies.
That is, as they stated in the APR, an increase of 16.7 percent compared to the same period last year.
In doing so, one should take into account the fact, as they say in the APR, that companies can be deleted from the register only after a bankruptcy, liquidation, status change of merger or acquisition with another company, or after a compulsory liquidation procedure.
All these processes take place in several phases, of which all procedures are not conducted in the APR because the courts conduct bankruptcies, the liquidation manager conducts the liquidation procedure in the company, so that they last for several months.
“So far, no mass deletion from the APR register has been noticed, which could be a consequence of the corona virus pandemic,” they stated in that agency.
It is added that when it comes to entrepreneurs, 3,702 entrepreneurs were deleted from the register in the last two months, while 3,445 entrepreneurs were deleted in the same period last year, which is an increase of 7.4 percent compared to the same period last year.
With the entrepreneur, the procedure is simpler because the entrepreneur submits a registration application for deletion, with two certificates from the Tax Administration on the basis of which he is deleted from the register, if he proves that he has paid his tax obligations.
The entrepreneur ceases to perform activities by force of law, based on the request of the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) which is submitted electronically to APR, and the basis for deletion is the blocking of the entrepreneur’s business account for a period longer than two years.
On that basis, in the last two months, 1,036 entrepreneurs were deleted from the APR, and in the same period last year, 308 entrepreneurs.
Most of the deleted companies are in the activity of non-specialized trade in consulting services, restaurant services, construction, road freight transport, programming and car sales.
Entrepreneurs who closed the stores were mainly engaged in computer programming, catering, trade, taxiing, consulting services, transportation, cosmetic and hairdressing services and vehicle servicing, Beta reports.
