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Budget surplus of 350 million dinars in January
Belgrade,
2 February 2005
Serbian Minister of Finance Mladjan Dinkic said today that a budget surplus of 350 million dinars was recorded in January.
Dinkic told a press conference at the main government building that the budget reserve currently stands at 22 billion dinars but that it has been agreed not to spend any of it in the first half of the year, rather the plan is to revise the budget in July in order to allocate more funds towards the development of infrastructure, culture, and sport.
He explained that seven billion dinars in the current budget reserve came from last year, 350 million dinars is the January surplus, 1.4 billion dinars is from privatisation, and 10 billion dinars is from the sale of the Jubanka bank.
Dinkic also said that the government intends to curb inflation in the second quarter and that the price of electricity will not be raised on April 1.
According to him, the main objective is to maintain economic stability and to cut inflation. “The plan is for inflation in the second quarter to be close to zero, which means that we will pursue a policy of dinar stability. There will be no electricity price hikes until July 1,” said Dinkic.
He also said that the state power utility EPS will have to undergo a restructuring before it is allowed to raise prices.
He said that the inflation rate in the first quarter will be higher than in the rest of the year but that the government plans to end the year with the projected inflation of 9.1 percent. A precondition for this, according to Dinkic, is to make sure that public companies have no variance of wage hikes than those envisaged by the 2005 budget.
“The total amount of salaries and wages at public enterprises must not exceed the earmarked sum by more than 7 percent this year,” said Dinkic.
He also announced fines of up to 50,000 dinars for retailers who do not issue fiscal receipts and added that they will have to procure GPRS terminals for remote monitoring of their daily reports from cash registers.
Dinkic said that a proposal to reduce the tax on royalties by 20 percent and an anti-piracy bill will soon be debated in parliament.
He explained that seven billion dinars in the current budget reserve came from last year, 350 million dinars is the January surplus, 1.4 billion dinars is from privatisation, and 10 billion dinars is from the sale of the Jubanka bank.
Dinkic also said that the government intends to curb inflation in the second quarter and that the price of electricity will not be raised on April 1.
According to him, the main objective is to maintain economic stability and to cut inflation. “The plan is for inflation in the second quarter to be close to zero, which means that we will pursue a policy of dinar stability. There will be no electricity price hikes until July 1,” said Dinkic.
He also said that the state power utility EPS will have to undergo a restructuring before it is allowed to raise prices.
He said that the inflation rate in the first quarter will be higher than in the rest of the year but that the government plans to end the year with the projected inflation of 9.1 percent. A precondition for this, according to Dinkic, is to make sure that public companies have no variance of wage hikes than those envisaged by the 2005 budget.
“The total amount of salaries and wages at public enterprises must not exceed the earmarked sum by more than 7 percent this year,” said Dinkic.
He also announced fines of up to 50,000 dinars for retailers who do not issue fiscal receipts and added that they will have to procure GPRS terminals for remote monitoring of their daily reports from cash registers.
Dinkic said that a proposal to reduce the tax on royalties by 20 percent and an anti-piracy bill will soon be debated in parliament.
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