In today’s Government session, The Government of Montenegro considered and adopted the Report on the activities aimed at suppressing grey economy, along with the Proposal for measures to suppress grey economy.
“As you already know, with a view to tackling grey economy, the Government formed a new Commission in 2018, chaired by the Vice-President of the Government, Mr Milutin Simović. The Commission is composed of representatives of different state institutions and authorities. Combating grey economy can’t be a task of one authority only. That fight requires synchronized actions of all state institutions, combined with different measures and activities”, said State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Mr Nemanja Katnić, at the media conference held after the Government’s session.
He said that the Commission had been expanded to include representatives of other state bodies and, more importantly, representatives of the Foreign Investors Council, American Chamber of Commerce, Chamber of Commerce of Montenegro, Union of Free Trade Unions and Association of Trade Unions of Montenegro.
Mr Katnić added that during 2018 and in 2019 many reform activities had been undertaken with the aim of establishing better control system and creating more favorable, more attractive and more competitive business environment. Activities of different state bodies resulted in prevention of illegal trade, illegal traffic, confiscation of products and prevention of illegal business operations in various areas.
Mr Katnić pointed out that state authorities in charge had carried out over 30.000 inspection controls – supervision on the internal market and in foreign trade turnover. There have been around 11.000 irregularities on the internal market, over 5.647 misdemeanor warrants have been issued, around 2,2 million fines have been imposed. Corrections on the grounds of controls totaled €48 million. Value of goods intended for customs purposes has been increased by around €6 million. Consequently, collection of customs duties has increased by €1.5 million. Accommodation registration, registration of guests, collection of local taxes and working relations in hospitality sector deserve to be addressed with special attention.Preparation of the new Law on Labor is underway. The new law is expected to contribute to reduction of informal employment and suppression of illegal work.
In addition, Mr Katnić pointed out that attention of inspectors had been focused on the fulfillment of access requirements for business entities dealing with tourism, hospitality, trade, craftsmanship, healthcare and other types of services, as well as fulfillment of all requirements in the facilities necessary for the performance of the aforementioned activities.
All measures resulted in increased fiscal discipline, higher collection of source revenues with an emphasis on the recovery of tobacco market which led to better collection of excise on tobacco products.
