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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbian parliament adopts several laws

Belgrade, 22 December 2005

Members of the Serbian parliament adopted today a set of laws concerning the Pension and Disability Insurance (PIO) fund, Law on mortgage, changes to the Law on Criminal Procedure, Law on distribution of transfer funds from the Serbian Republic budget for 2006, as well as the Law on giving counter-guarantees for a loan from the European Investment Bank of €34 million for the project of the rehabilitation of the flight control infrastructure.

Author: Beta

The adoption of the set of laws on the PIO fund will make it possible to pay the rest of the debt to pensioners, as well as financial help to parents with newly born babies.

Amendments to the Law on public debt of Serbia on the basis of Serbia taking over the liabilities of the Republic’s PIO fund for employees and the Republic’s PIO fund for agriculturalists stipulate that the state should pay with interest the remaining debt to pensioners, worth 49 billion dinars.

Amendments to the Law on financial help to families have introduced parents’ allowance for the first born, which should be paid in one payment from January 1, 2006 in the amount of 20,000 dinars. Parents’ allowance for the second, third and fourth child will be given in 24 instalments in the two years following the birth of the child, also beginning from January 1, 2006.

Adoption of amendments to the Law on social care and providing social security to citizens has specified that allowances received on the basis of needing nursing-care and help for civilian invalids should be increased by anywhere from 60 to 160 percent.

Changes to the Law on Criminal Procedure include an extension of up to four years of detention for the most severe crimes.

According to the proposed changes, a person accused of a criminal act for which the sentence of 40 years of imprisonment has been prescribed, or a person who has committed acts of organised crime for which the sentence of 40 years and more has been prescribed, can be kept in detention for no longer than two or four years respectively before the court starts the proceedings against them.

If the sentence is not declared in this period, the detainee will be released from custody.

The second change to this Law envisages the possibility of putting into custody an indictee who has been previously released because the sentence was not pronounced during the appropriate period. This is possible in case the released indictee is in hiding, has escaped or tried to escape, or if he avoids to answer to the court summons, and the detention can last until the first-instance sentence is pronounced.

The Serbian parliament adopted today the Law on mortgage that should provide incentive for housing construction and facilitate collection of liabilities, by ensuring better legal protections for creditors and debtors.

According to this law, unregistered buildings, buildings under construction, as well as land in ownership can be mortgaged and this novelty should contribute to accelerated housing construction, because until now in order to get housing loans it was possible to mortgage only finished buildings, while many of them are not registered.

The Serbian parliament also adopted today the Law on distribution of transfer funds from the Republic of Serbia’s budget for 2006, which transfers to the budgets of municipalities, cities and the city of Belgrade a total of 15.4 billion dinars.

Transfer funds for Belgrade and other cities will be increased by four percent and for municipalities by 20 percent compared to this year.

Municipalities, cities and the city of Belgrade will participate with 40 percent in income tax realisation on their territories.

The Serbian parliament also adopted the Law on giving counter-guarantees for the loan from the European Investment Bank worth €34 million for the rehabilitation of flight control infrastructure and the securing of equipment that can satisfy European standards, which is a condition for getting certification from Europe.