Serbian Finance Minister Diana Dragutinović said Friday that she expected the total budget revenue in 2011 to exceed earlier forecasts by about RSD 10bn.
“Based on these two months – December of last and January of this year – I can accurately predict the revenue in 2011,” she said, adding that she was almost certain it would be “at least RSD 10bn higher than planned.”
Finance Minister Diana Dragutinović told daily VeÄernje Novosti that Serbia will not end up in the same situation as Greece financially. She said that Serbia’s public debt is not as great.
Finance Minister Diana Dragutinović says her ministry is considering a revision of excise taxes on fuel derivatives, but that the change would not be “drastic”. If the excise tax on gasoline is reduced, those on diesel fuel will be augmented, Dragutinović explained for Tanjug.
Six months after it was made public, the State Auditing Institution (DRI) report on budget spending in 2008 is today finally discussed by MPs in parliament. DRI Council President Radoslav Sretenović, PM Mirko Cvetković, Finance Minister Diana Dragutinović and other minister are all attending the session.
Finance Minister Diana Dragutinović said that the government and central bank, NBS, must bring about a decrease in the level of the dinar’s “euroization”. She said that the government must find a way to increase demand for the Serbian dinar (RSD), which will in turn decrease oscillations in the exchange rate.
The essence of the government reform of the pension system, supported by the IMF, is a reduction of the number of pensioners, Diana Dragutinović says. “The reform also includes increase of the lowest with the reduction of the highest pensions,†the finance minister told B92.
Finance Minister Diana Dragutinović says the IMF will send a mission in February 2010 to analyze the situation in the Serbian tax system. “I hope that the visit will give us a clear picture of the type of tax system that Serbia needs. Of course, all that would be done to stimulate economic growth and employment,” Dragutinović told the Blic daily.
A day after the media quoted her as saying that more than EUR 1.4bn is spent from the budget each year in an “unknown manner”, the finance minister spoke again. The money, close to RSD 130bn, is not missing from the budget, Diana Dragutinović told Belgrade daily Politika, “since it is never there in the first place”.
The Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) has warned the government to halt unilateral implementation of the trade agreement with the EU or risk bankruptcy. “I think that Prime Minister Mirko Cvetković and Finance Minister Diana Dragutinović should immediately inform the public how much tax payer’s money has been wasted on the unilateral implementation of the trade agreement with the EU,” DSS official Slobodan Vuksanović told Tanjug.
Finance Minister Diana Dragutinović says the decline of Serbia’s economic activity has come to an end. However, she warned that the speed of the growth also depends on the recovery of other economies.
Belgrade daily Blic writes that the government is considering replacing Finance Minister Diana Dragutinović. Blic writes that the minister’s statement regarding new taxes of 20 percent for wages over RSD 40,000 (EUR 435) have ruffled some feathers within the government.
Finance Minister Diana Dragutinović said on Friday that her ministry made several important moves over the past year. This prevented the financial collapse of the state, she stated.
Diana Dragutinović is confident the government will manage to reach an agreement with the IMF on increasing the 2009 budget deficit from 3 to 4.5 percent GDP. The finance minister said that the government would propose credible measures to cut the deficit.
Finance Minister Diana Dragutinović says that GDP will fall from 3.5 to 5 percent by the end of the year. She predicted that GDP would drop between 3.5 and 5 percent by the end of the year, but warned that “it is too early for us to be overly optimistic.”
Serbia and the World Bank have signed an agreement today for a loan worth USD 388mn for construction work on the Corridor 10 highway. The deal was signed by Finance Minister Diana Dragutinović and the head of the World Bank’s office in Serbia Simon Gray.
