New way of calculating environmental fees – Companies using obsolete technologies, transporters of oil and hazardous matters to be targeted

Under the regulation recently adopted by the Government of Serbia, the unemployed, pensioners with earnings up to RSD 25,000 and young people up to 18 years of age will be exempt from paying the mandatory environmental fee. Another new feature is that the collection will be done in line with the amount of pollution.

Until now, the environmental fee was calculated per square meter of living space or as a percentage of the income.

– From now on, the fee will be calculated exclusively proportional to the amount of water, air and ground pollution – says Filip Radovic, the director of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The pollution fee will be paid by those who emit harmful matters, those who produce and dispose of hazardous waste and public utility enterprises.

Another type of fee, the one that pertains to the protection and improvement of the environment, will also be paid by citizens who pollute the environment, in addition to companies and entrepreneurs.

– The list will also feature companies which transport petroleum products and harmful industrial matters – the Environmental Protection Agency says.

The control of how the money collected is spent, but also the collection itself, will be made stricter.

– Along with the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Finance and the Environmental Protection Agency, several inspectors will be active in local units. The implementation of the new regulation is expected to double the revenues – the Agency says.

The new regulation will most affect the producers which use obsolete technologies. This introduces the “polluter pays principle”, which has been implemented in the EU for several decades now.

Agencija za zaštitu životne sredine Beograd

Ministarstvo zaštite životne sredine Republike Srbije

Ministarstvo finansija Republike Srbije

Vlada Republike Srbije

Filip Radović

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oil

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