Government’s Expert Group Begins Preparation of New National Program for Suppressing the Shadow Economy – To Be Put Before Ministers in September

The Expert Group of the Government of Serbia has begun preparing the new National Program for Suppressing the Shadow Economy and this strategic document will be put before the ministers by September, and its adoption will provide a new incentive to the improvement of inspection supervision and the creation of a fair business environment, reduction of illegal employment, illegal trade and tax evasion, the NALED announced.

At the session of the Expert Group for Suppressing the Shadow Economy, which brings together representatives of seven ministries and other competent institutions, the NALED and the economy gathered within the Fair Competition Alliance, the concept of the new program was presented. The program will have four objectives – increased supervision over the shadow economy and the processing, improvement of tax supervision procedures, fiscal and administrative unburdening of the responsible economy and education and promotion of legal business.

– All the ministries, inspection services and the economy contributed to the execution of 71.2% of the measures of the previous national program and it is one of the programs with the highest degree of realization. In the meantime, there’s been considerable progress with the implementation of digital fiscalization and eInvoices, as well as the expansion of the electronic procedure of registering occasional workers for new activities and I am sure that, by the end of the year, we will realize additional measures from the previous action plan, so we do have good momentum for the new program to be implemented even more successfully – stated Jelena Bojovic, the director for regulatory reform at the NALED.

Jelena Cirkovic, the main adviser at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in Serbia, who attended the session, pointed out that it was very important that the measures for the improvement of the efficiency of the inspection organs comprised an important part of the national program and that, for more than four years, the EBRD had been supporting the reform of the inspection supervision in Serbia.

– The inspections are one of the main tools for suppressing the shadow economy and the EBRD has supported a range of activities which have helped establish the eInspector system, which has connected 37 state inspections. We have contributed to the adoption of around 150 legal acts, which have upgraded and harmonized inspection supervision, and more than 800 control lists which the inspectors use to control the economy. We have also helped adopt the plan for the employment of 1,272 inspectors over three years and more than 800 inspectors have been upgraded, which will help their material position and increase their motivation – Cirkovic said and added that, at the beginning of the pandemic, a contact center of state inspections for reporting the shadow economy had been established and that it had received over 22,000 reports from citizens and the economy.

As it was said at the session, among other things, the new national program should entail measures such as the further development of the eInspector system, the improvement of the efficiency of offense proceedings, the forming of the government’s office for inspections and the merging of related inspection services, the improvement of the procedure of the legalization of facilities, as well as the improvement of the procedure of determining the tax on the transfer of absolute rights when purchasing used vehicles.

There are also important incentives such as the further reduction of tax charges on labor, the preparation of a public register of non-tax charges, the stimulation of cashless payments, the expansion of the system for the registration of seasonal and temporary workers to construction, tourism and hospitality and home jobs, the regulation of non-standard forms of work, tax exemptions, such as being exempt from paying the taxes in the first year of doing business, especially for priority categories such as lump-sum taxpayers or certain activities, the regulation of crafts, the digitization of administrative procedures and a range of education campaigns.

Vlada Republike Srbije

NALED

EBRD Evropska banka za obnovu i razvoj

Fair Competition Alliance

Jelena Bojović

Jelena Ćirković

Expert Group for Suppressing the Shadow Economy

shadow economy

eInspector

contact center for reporting shadow economy

Office for Inspection Services of the Government of Serbia

reduction of tax charges on labor

non tax charges

registration of workers