The Union of Employers of Serbia sent the Government a proposal for a package of 5 + 3 measures to revitalize the economy and minimize the impact of the pandemic on the national economy.
A package of five measures was proposed to the Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, while a set of proposals for amending the Labor Law was sent to the address of the Minister of Labor, Employment, Veterans’ Affairs and Social Affairs Zoran Djordjevic, the Union of Employers announced.
Welcoming the previous measures of the Government to support the economy, the Union of Employers in the proposed measures recommends reducing VAT in the hardest hit area of tourism and catering to 10 percent and paying VAT on realized invoices, starting from January 1, 2021.
In addition, employers are proposing to abolish the obligation to document the tax-free costs of transportation fees for the arrival and departure of employees from work, reduce the amount of local utility taxes by 30 percent, such as company compensation fees, and postpone the payment of the newly introduced eco tax.
In addition to the above package, the Union considers it very important that the public sector timely fulfills all due financial obligations from contracts and commercial transactions with the private sector.
“The measures taken by the Government of Serbia so far have been a great help to the Serbian economy, I am thinking primarily of the payment of the minimum wage and the postponement of the payment of taxes and contributions for January 2021. However, those measures are not enough for the depth of the crisis in which the whole world, including our country, finds itself”, says Srdjan Drobnjakovic, director of the Union of Employers.
He adds that “the sooner we understand that and the sooner we apply the new measures, the less the consequences will be.”
“And the consequences only threaten the companies in the first step, because if the turnover falls, the payments to the budget will decrease, while the new layoffs would additionally burden the social part of the budget,” states Drobnjakovic.
To the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans’ Affairs and Social Affairs, employers propose that employees be allowed to use last year’s annual leave after June 30 of the current year, and that if it is used in parts, there is no restriction that the first part must not be shorter than two weeks.
They also propose that the salary compensation due to temporary incapacity for work for 30 days be at the expense of the Health Fund of the Republic of Serbia, and not at the expense of the employer, and that the procedure for giving consent to the competent minister be simplified in case the employer has volume of work, the need to send an employee on leave for more than 45 working days, with a salary compensation of 60 percent.
The Union of Employers emphasizes that so far it has found a high understanding of the Government of Serbia and that this time it also expects the organization of a meeting as soon as possible, at which a solution that is best for everyone would be jointly sought, Novi Magazin reports.
