All state fees soon to be unified – Apportionment of charges by value of investment to be abolished

The Ministry of Finance has prepared a draft law on amendments to the Law on State Administrative Fees, according to which all the fees charged for by state institutions and companies should from now on be unified. Although there are still 228 tariff items, there are many more charges.

The new law, as Vecernje Novosti reports, also abolishes the practice of percent apportionment of a charge in line with the value of the investment. This amendment will benefit construction investors the most. Exploitation permits will no longer cost 0.2% of the value of the facility. Instead, fixed amounts are proposed, from 1,800 to 18,000 dinars, depending on the size of the facility.

– The number of fees has increased, but, in fact, no new fees have been implemented. Instead, the existing ones have been unified – the National Alliance for Local Economic Development explains. – These fees have existed before in various regulations and bylaws. It's good that they are now unified, for the transparency and predictability of business activities. Many didn't even know some of these taxes existed. On the other hand, it's important that the practice of defining them as a percentage of a certain amount is abandoned. This means that this used to be a classic parafiscal charge, as it was defined in line with the payer's purchasing power and not according to the real expenses of having it issued.

Telecommunication fees are no longer expressed in percentages either. For example, a fee of 0.3% of the estimated value is currently paid for a decision authorizing the construction of telecommunications structures, which will be abolished following the adoption of the new law, which is to urgently enter the procedure at the National Assembly.

This draft law also defines fees for registration of mortgage as security for claims. These fees depend precisely on the value of the claims. The lowest one is RSD 20,980, for securing claims of up to RSD 6 million (around EUR 50,000 at the current middle exchange rate). The next one amounts to RSD 52,440, for claims from six to 30 million dinars, followed by a fee of RSD 104,880 for claims up to RSD 60 million and RSD 157,310 for claims above that amount.

The highest and the lowest fee

The highest fee cited in the law amounts to RSD 4,340,700. It is charged for technical supervision of the construction of tankers with LBD modules of over 3,000 cubic meters. The lowest fee, amounting to RSD 40, is charged for the issuing of a physical-geographic map of Serbia on a B2 paper.

Ministarstvo finansija Republike Srbije

NALED

Law on State Administrative Fees

amendments to the Law on State Administrative Fees

exploitation permit

issuing exploitation permit

exploitation permits

telecommunication fees

fees

parafiscal charges

construction investors

mortgage registration fee

telecommunications fees

percent apportionment by value of investment