Dokić je kao predstavnik klastera prevoza naveo da su išli na sastanak u ministarstvo saobraćaja i da su razgovarali sa državnim sekretarom Veljovićem pošto novi ministar saobraćaja još nije izabran.
"We presented the problems we face every day, and that is primarily the extreme increase in oil prices. The war in Iran has triggered this avalanche that does no good to anyone, and we have said what is troubling us," Dokić said.
He points out that they could divide their proposal to the Government into two parts.
"The first part is systemic solutions, meaning VAT and excise taxes that bother us all because we are dependent on them, are not being returned quickly enough, or, I can say, they are being returned poorly," Dokić said.
He adds that they have legal solutions where you must receive a VAT decision within 60 days of submitting the request, and if you are predominantly an exporter, within 30 days.
"However, this is not respected, we enter into insolvency and then we have to take out loans from the other side, from commercial banks, to be able to cover that insolvency, and our money is with the state. Secondly, the moment we are late with the state - the state charges us interest of 0.03 percent per day," he says.
When the state owes them, Dokić points out, no interest is calculated, and this violates the principle of equality, because their money and the state's money are not worth the same.
"We pointed all this out to the Ministry of Transport, and the State Secretary was very fair and accepted our arguments. We proposed a solution that would make it easier for the Ministry of Finance, meaning that it would get out of the situation it is in, and that is that they could collect the VAT debt with government bonds, because we could pledge those bonds as securities with commercial banks, draw down a loan, and it would allow us to become much more liquid and overcome this situation we are currently in," he said.
The second request, he says, was that they have three installments of aid that have been in place since 2021, when the coronavirus pandemic occurred, and after that, six installments of aid were promised.
"Three were paid, three were never paid. That's for all bus operators in Montenegro, and those three aid installments would amount to approximately one million seven hundred to one million eight hundred thousand euros. I think that's a symbolic figure for the Montenegrin budget, and it would mean a lot to us to overcome the difficulties we're currently facing," he emphasizes.
Economic analyst Predrag Zečević points out that 30 million in debt is a large figure, and that the state must show a slightly better attitude towards, especially, domestic companies that are seriously threatened by this non-payment.
"Bonds are a very good solution that was implemented by Slovenia, and Japan was the first," he says.
He points out that the state needs to finance some more social benefits and VAT debt.
"It would be good if a bond issuance took place in the first half of the year, especially because I think the market is liquid and banks would simply buy those bonds," emphasizes Zečević.
He points out that this is a good solution, because if the state were to pay out 30 million euros now, there might be a liquidity problem.
"As you know, we now have about 8 million euros less in the budget due to the reduction of VAT and excise duties on fuel, and this is a very good solution. The problem is that when the state takes VAT, it can easily take it in one go. However, when it has to return VAT and money, there are already problems because you get an inspection the next day, you have strict checks, and that system is very slow because the state is happy to take money but reluctant to give it away," he emphasizes.
He states that it is easy to prove that this is a regular job because they are bus operators.
"Bonds are the only way to solve this in the long term, because at this moment, the state does not have the money to pay 30 million directly from the budget," Zečević points out.
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