Companies propose grey economy decrease measures

The Fair competition association which gathers socially responsible companies in Serbia will deliver to the Government of Serbia a package of measures to decrease grey economy, the National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED) has announced today.

The Association, as the working body of NALED, thinks it is necessary to provide better payment collections of existing taxes instead of implementing new or increasing the existing taxes because that kind of practice punishes businesses which operate legally and timely pay their taxes.

Consequence is transfer to grey zone and cancellation of work positions, it was stated in the announcement.

- Companies which pay taxes and other fees expect the state should do its job and protect them from disloyal competition. It is necessary for us to have markets with equal business opportunities for everybody – Member of the Managing Board at NALED, GM at Bambi, Miroslav Miletic said.

Members of the Association outline that it is necessary to start from appointing a representative of the government in charge of coordination of activities in grey economy decrease as well as set uo of inter-ministerial working group for defining and implementation of the measures.

As essential measures in grey economy fight, the Alliance mentioned better coordination of labor inspection, strengthening of customs control in sectors with the highest risk for illegal trade such as textile, food products, cosmetics and specialization of court.

The Fair competition association gathers heads of Bambi, BAT, Coca-Cola HBC Srbija, Centro stampa holding, DIS, EY, Gomex, Holcim, Idea, JTI, Mondelez, Nelt, Philip Morris international, Schneider Electric, Societe Generale Serbia and Telenor, which annually pay to budget more than EUR 350 m of taz and hire more than 17.000 people.