Photo: Media Centar Belgrade
The study was conducted by USAID BEP and NALED and included a survey on earmarked revenues in which AmCham took part.
Besides Ms. Pavić, speakers at the event were Joe Lowther and Dušan Vasiljević of the USAID Business Enabling Project, Milan Simić of NALED, Nikola Altiparmakov of the Fiscal Council, Branko Radulović of the Balkan Centre for Regulatory Reform and Darko Vukobratović of Contango LTD.
Ms. Pavić pointed out that one of major problems faced by domestic and foreign investors is a lack of transparency in the introduction and adoption of new taxes and compensations that creates an insecure and unpredictable business environment.In the case of local taxes, she explained, it is hard in practice for an investor to compare taxes in various municipalities, since these may differ, and such comparisons hardly achievable due to different methodologies used by the municipalities. The current system, composed of numerous and unsystematically introduced ‘’hidden’’ charges of various values, represents a reputational risk for the country, she said. Emphasizing that only a transparent and credible regulatory framework could attract investments, Ms. Pavić pointed out that advocacy towards preventing imposition of new para-fiscal charges in non-fiscal regulations and strict criteria for determining charges collected at the local level, will remain one of AmCham key advocacy priorities.
