Amendments to tax legislation should be a reform priority of the new Serbian Government, decided the members of the National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED) at their X annual meeting held today at the National Bank of Serbia. Among the five most important regulatory issues to improve the business environment were also regulations on electronic commerce, taxation and social security contributions on wages, regulations governing the operation and position of local governments, as well as regulations in the field of environmental protection.
– We hope to get a government with which we will be able to work quickly and efficiently and NALED will propose the implementation of reform priorities that our members have chosen. Over time, we plan to commit to the implementation of public-private partnerships, improving knowledge and efficiency of civil servants and reform of health care financing. It is necessary to immediately start the implementation of the National Programme to combat the grey economy, which is now on hold – said Ana Brnabić, President of the Managing Board of NALED.
At the annual general meeting X, NALED formally handed over the software for the electronic issuance of building permits for permanent ownership to the Government of Serbia and the Serbian Business Registers Agency. On the occasion Brnabić said that NALED would insist that the next steps in the development of e-services for citizens and businesses should have been introducing electronic payment and electronic archiving.
Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Zorana Mihajlović said that in the first quarter there were 725 e-issued building permits, and in the period from March to December 2015, a quarter more than the average over the last seven years. Also, the growth of the construction industry accounted for 24% last year partly due to the faster granting of licences.
The system for electronic issuance of building permits in the function from the 4th of January this year and has so far received nearly 8,000 requests submitted, for various building permits, of which 70% were resolved. The software was created by the project GIZ Open Regional Fund to improve municipal services in partnership with NALED and financial support provided by the governments of Germany and Switzerland.
Memorandum of Understanding which formalised the handover of software was signed by Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Construction Zorana Mihajlović, the President of NALED Ana Brnabić, manager of GIZ Open Regional Fund Chritophe di Marco and Director of the Business Registers Agency Zvonko Obradović.