For the first time, the state of Serbia issued bonds that will settle the debt of citizens on the basis of compensation for confiscated property, the Ministry of Finance announced.
The total amount of compensation for confiscated property for bond issues issued in 2022 was determined on the basis of the Decision on Compensation, issued by the Agency for Restitution, and became final in the period from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, and it is 69.45 million euros and will be paid by issuing bonds with maturities of five, ten and twelve years.
Compensation on the basis of issued bonds will be paid once a year from January 14, 2023, until the maturity of the bond, depending on its maturity.
“According to the decisions of the Agency for Restitution, which became final by June 30, 2021, and who submitted documentation on open accounts, the bonds were registered in the owner’s account with the Central Registry, Depot and Clearing of Securities, so that the situation and the distribution of bonds by series of the appropriate issue, they can get through a member (authorized bank or investment company), who opened the account with the Central Registry of Securities,” said in a statement.
Beneficiaries who have not submitted documentation on open accounts, bonds are registered on a temporary account with the Central Registry, so it is necessary to open appropriate accounts through a member of CRHoV as soon as possible, download and fill in the form from the website of the Agency for Restitution and submit required data.
On March 31, 2022, the Ministry of Finance of Serbia will pay the former owners an advance in cash, based on the decision on compensation that became final by June 30, 2021, in the amount of 10 percent of the determined amount of compensation on all grounds of the former owner.
The bonds are registered and transferable and are paid in euros. The law stipulates that the turnover and possession of these bonds are exempt from any type of tax.
The Law on Restitution of Confiscated Property and Compensation provides for the procedure of returning confiscated property and compensation for confiscated property, which is on the territory of Serbia by applying regulations on agrarian reform, nationalization, sequestration, and other regulations, based on acts of nationalization, after March 9, 1945 taken away from citizens and certain legal entities and transferred to public, state, social or cooperative ownership
The law also applies to the return of property whose confiscation is a consequence of the Holocaust on the territory of Serbia.
This regulation stipulates that the property is returned in kind or compensation is given in the form of government bonds and in cash, Danas reports.
