It is time to change the system of taxation of minimum wages

The urgent adoption of the new Program for combating the shadow economy, enabling cashless payment at all public administration counters with the abolition of paper payment slips, as well as the inclusion of all national and local inspections in the eInspektor system, are the main priorities of the Alliance for Fair Competition. The Alliance will advocate these priorities to the new Government to reduce business acitivities in the gray zone in Serbia.

At the meeting of the Alliance, the importance of suppressing illegal work in the fight against the shadow economy was particularly emphasized. Therefore, proposals for reducing the tax burden, especially on minimum wages, expanding the law on hiring seasonal and casual workers to construction, tourism, catering and domestic help jobs, as well as regulating the status of non-standard and flexible forms of work, will be among priorities.

- The adoption of the new program for suppressing the shadow economy should be a priority of the Government of Serbia. The Alliance for Fair Competition, as part of the Government's expert group, contributed to the definition of the measures of that strategic document, and we will make an additional contribution with a new assessment of the volume of the shadow economy in Serbia using several different methods, which we will soon publish - said the new president of the alliance and director of the Atlantic Group for Serbia, Zoran Daljević adding that the Alliance for Fair Competition brings together 51 companies and institutions that together employ more than 40,000 people.

The guest at the session was the new Minister of Internal and Foreign Trade, Tomislav Momirović, who emphasized the importance of further work on the new Program to combat the shadow economy and promote fair business conditions.

- In cooperation with NALED and members of the Alliance, in the next two years, we will work with special attention on further improvement of inspection supervision with the aim of suppressing the shadow economy. We remain consistent in strengthening the preventive and advisory role of the inspection, but also in preventing and suppressing illegal trade in various forms. We will use all available capacities to further encourage the informational connection of the eInspector with other authorities responsible for combating the shadow economy - said Momirović.

When it comes to reducing the tax burden on salaries, the workers union said that it is necessary to think in the direction of achieving greater progressiveness of taxation, as well as the possible abolition of health care contributions as a way to achieve a more significant relief. In addition, one of the Government's priorities should be the reform of the system of non-tax levies and the abolition of parafiscals. The first step would be to establish a public register of all fees and other charges. During 2021, NALED developed a register that recorded more than 2,000 levies placed in more than 200 laws and 400 by-laws at the national and local level.

An important measure in suppressing the shadow economy is encouraging cashless payments. The Alliance supported the Office for IT and eGovernment in establishing the possibility of cashless payment at more than 400 public administration counters, and the next step will be the further expansion of the reception infrastructure. It was announced by the launch of the POS program within the National Initiative for Cashless Payments, within which up to 25,000 sales points for entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized enterprises, and institutions' counters will be equipped with POS terminals and solutions for online sales. This will increase the number of reception places by more than 20%.

The new leadership of the Alliance for Fair Competition

The members of the Alliance for Fair Competition elected a new leadership of this body. For the next two years, the Alliance will be led by Zoran Daljević, director of the Atlantic Group representative office. The vice-presidents in the new convocation will be Ivan Miletić, director of corporate affairs for Southeast Europe at PMI, Jelena Ristić, director for the markets of Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina at Mastercard, Jovan Krivokapić, manager of corporate affairs at JTI and Biljana Bujić, tax partner at KPMG. in