Belgrade, 27th, June 2017 – The Foreign Investors Council held its second ”Dialogue for Change” dedicated to the tax regulation and implementation, with Tax Administration Director Dragana Markovic and EU Commission representative Reinhard Biebel as special speakers. Discussion was focused on concrete tax policy measures which can trigger economic growth and which are fundamentally linked to predictability, modernization and consistent application of tax regulation.
In the introductory speech, FIC Vice President Dimitrije Knjeginjic conveyed that the goal of this event is to strengthen and rise to the higher level dialogue with Government and other important stakeholders. Talking about tax regulation and implementation, he pointed out that taxes are number one topic for the business, which substantially affects the perception of Serbia as an investment destination. “Every company takes into consideration quality of tax regulation when deciding where to invest, on Serbian or some other market. This is why taxes are topic of all topics. We at FIC do not deal with tax rates, but with tax regulation and their implementation and our message is simple: Serbia needs clear rules which equally applied to all, in order to attract more investments” said FIC Vice President. He concluded that the ultimate goal is to leave behind the time of abrupt revision of tax rules and ways they are applied.
Panel discussion that followed featured: Director of Tax Administration of Republic of Serbia Dragana Markovic, European Commission DG TAXUD Deputy Head of Unit Reinhard Biebel, FIC Board member Ivan Rakic, FIC Taxation Committee President Dragan Draca and FIC Anti-Illicit Trade Committee President Goran Pekez.
The event resulted with the joint conclusion that the FIC and the Government need to deepen their cooperation through timely expert dialogue in which the Government will convey its plans and share drafts of new legislation, and the private sector will say whether these solutions are feasible in the given timeframe and how they will affect business operations and, ultimately, the country’s GDP.
About the “Dialogue for Change”: The main aim of this new event is to bring the dialogue between the Government and FIC to a new level and enable more direct interaction and exchange of views and ideas. The main goal is to reach common conclusions and agree on joint actions resulting with concrete improvements in the business climate in Serbia on the most important topics which stand at the core of a country’s competitiveness.
About FIC: FIC continues to expand, gathering over 130 companies who have invested over EUR 28.7 billion, contributed to 21.7% of GDP, 22.2% of Serbian exports, 18% of Serbian corporate income tax state revenue, and directly employ over 94,000 peoplein Serbia. The association is continuously growing – in the past year investments grew by €5.2 billion, while direct GDP share increased by 3.7% in the period of last two years, based on further growth and inflow of new members. FIC main goal is to influence the improvement of business climate in Serbia by making concrete reform proposals and building a business portal for communication with the authorities in Serbia. FIC is also focusing on promoting solid business ethics and high corporate governance principles within the organization and towards local companies, the Government, and other external stakeholders. Through support and active engagement of membership, FIC has proven to be a strict guardian of the business community interests and at the same time a reliable partner to the Government of Serbia and other relevant stakeholders.
