AmCham and NALED requiring countering shadow economy to be made priority – EUR 1 billion needs to be turned legal

Around 30% of Serbia’s GDP is made up of unfair competition, and countering shadow economy should remain the Government of Serbia’s priority, the American Chamber of Commerce and NALED warned at the conference dedicated to countering shadow economy held on December 23.

The president of AmCham Serbia, Zoran Petrovic, says that research shows that “the judicial system in Serbia is not efficient enough and that the key problem is in improving the business environment and a big stumbling block in countering shadow economy”.

Petrovic pointed out that AmCham supported predictable, transparent, legally secure and equal business conditions for all participants in the market.

The business association, as he added, has founded a board for countering shadow economy, to the end of establishing an adequate legal framework and institutional mechanisms enabling a more efficient control of the flow of goods and services and sanctioning shadow economy and reducing corruption.

– The board for countering shadow economy is working on defining the measures which will lead to the completion of court procedures dealing with illegal operations – Petrovic said and added that, in order for the said goal to be achieved, a dialogue with the relevant authorities had been initiated, among them the prosecutor’s office. He said that an umbrella law on inspection supervision had been passed thanks to the cooperation with the Government of Serbia and the analysis of gaps in the regulations.

– We can be moderately satisfied with the implementation of that law. Numerous channels of shadow economy had been cut through coordinated operations of the customs service, the tax administration, the inspection and the police – Petrovic said.

Board member of the National Alliance for the Local Economic Development (NALED) Aleksandar Ruzevic said that the goal of the national program for countering corruption, with its 68 measures, adopted in cooperation with the government and the commercial sector, was to legalize more than EUR 1 billion and to reduce the share of the shadow economy in the GDP from 30% to 26%.

Ruzevic reminded that NALED had been cooperating with the Government of Serbia in countering shadow economy since 2014 and that the Coordinating Body for Countering Shadow Economy had been formed at the association’s initiative.

AmCham and NALED support the government’s decision to make 2017 and 2018 the years of countering shadow economy and expect the priority measures to be implemented, such as the establishment of the public register of non-tax charges, the reduction of the tax and administrative charges to the commercial sector, the introduction of incentives...

Vlada Republike Srbije

Američka privredna komora u Srbiji AmCham Serbia

NALED Beograd

American Chamber of Commerce

AmCham

NALED

National Alliance for the Local Economic Development

GDP of Serbia

countering shadow economy

shadow economy

Zoran Petrovic

judicial system in Serbia

goods and services flow control

corruption

Law on Inspection Supervision

Aleksandar Ruzevic

Coordinating Body for Countering Shadow Economy

public register of non tax charges

parafiscal charges