Before winning the elections in September 2000 Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) promised many things, amongst which fighting against the corruption and crime in all segments of society and penalties for those who have suddenly grown rich over the last ten years.Today, when examining the present Serbian financial situation, everyone can notice that, as Finance Minister Bozidar Djelic said in parliament, "Serbia was a blend of methods of robbing the people, none of which was individually original, but the blend was unique…".
The New Serbian Government is on a way to start fulfilling its’ promises.
On 20th June, after five days of debates, the Serbian Parliament has a law sanctioning a one-off tax on extra profit and extra property acquired from the beginning of the Milosevic regime (Danas, 21st June). Djelic’ s previously mentioned statement therefore finishes as following "… the blend was unique and the law is therefore unique in legal practice in the world".
This law shall not be levied on those who were directly breaking the law, but on those who were in a position to benefit from the laws which previous regime was adopting to approve its mainly illegal actions. For instance, it was very common to buy foreign currencies by the "official exchange rate" much lower than the real one. This "official exchange rate" existed just for the previous government and their associates. In one period of Milosevic’s regime for 1DEM one should have paid about 30 dinars on the street and they (the regime and its associates), at the same time were paying only 6 dinars according to their actually non existing "official exchange rate".
This is not the only example of how this "extreme legalist", as journalist of magazine NIN Tanja Jakobi calls them, misused their functions, robbed various founds, got numerous enormously large flats and houses, etc…
How the law on a one-off tax on extra profits will work?
The progressive rate is going to be from 30 to 90 percent on profit acquired from 1st January 1989 to the day on which the law comes into force. The lower end would tax profit of DEM 100.000 and the higher level would be applied to profit in excess of DM 10 million.
Also the tax will be paid for flats/houses bigger than 90 square metres (here it might be interesting to mention that the Serbian Radical Party suggested the limit to be 200 square metres. However this was rejected). Taxpayers are required to submit their tax forms within 30 days after the law comes into force. Special Government Commission will monitor the whole process while at the same time the part of the Republic Parliament will control its monitoring.
Not much time has lapsed since the Law was brought into the light, and already there are a lot of speculations about who are going to be these taxpayers. Among this guesses there are for instance Bogoljub Karic (called "Braca Karic") who has already found time to comment on the Law on extra profits. It is symptomatic that potential taxpayers, as well Bogoljub Karic speak of this law in the same way. Besides explanations that they are not the one who are going to be obliged to pay the tax, none of them is saying anything directly against it, however they do not miss a chance to give some "advice". Of course not one of them is defending themselves because all of them are waiting to see what are they exactly accused of.
For example Bogoljub Karic, in the Weekly magazine NIN (26th June), is giving examples of companies "Mercedes" and "Fiat" which were working under the fascist regime and were not punished afterwards. "They were even helped by new democratic government" explains one of the brothers Karic.
Djordje Antelj ("NIN", 21st June), Director and owner of the firm "Gemax", first commented on numerous accusations that his firm has been building various things without proper permits by saying that he works for every regime as long as he gets money. After that he said that he finds the Law on extra profits unnecessary because nowhere in the world there are retroactive laws.
Nevertheless it is true that this law is retroactive, however American experts for corruption told that in such an extremist situation something extreme need to be done.
It is actually very amusing to listen to these businessmen and ex-politicians during the rule of the former FRY president Slobodan Milosevic, so very untouchable then and now so full of various explanations and compromises. However people are still very sceptical and due to this scepticism it is plenty enough to mention that many people who were the closest associates of the previous regime joined the new streams of a new democratic government as nothing has happened. Probably the best example of such behaviour is Bogoljub Karic. The BK TV the media house that was reporting the same as RTS did during last ten years, and now it acts like it was all the time the greatest enemy of Milosevic.
The central person in the launching and adoption of Law on extra profits is Serbian Finance Minister Bozidar Djelic. In his interview to the weekly magazine Vreme (21st June) he explained that the Law on extra profits is necessary for people to start to trust again in state institutions, and for everyone to know that no one can act any more as it did in Milosevic’s era. He also stated in the Parliament that the money gained by taxing the profits will be used for the poorest among the citizens, who paid have the dearest price during the last ten years.
All in all it is again on citizens to wait hoping that the real bad guys will be punished.
