The retroactive introduction of a new profit tax through the announced adoption of the Law on Solidarity Contribution will destroy the business and investment environment in Montenegro, it was assessed during the last session of the Board of Trade Associations of the Chamber of Commerce.
Businessmen are of the opinion that this is a forced regulation that should ensure the coverage of increased expenses for public administration, stressing that its creation and adoption were not adequately communicated with the business community.
Although the creators of this act refer to similar solutions recently adopted in the environment and the EU, businessmen point out an important difference, which is that in these countries their adoption was announced in a timely manner – the previous year for this one, while in Montenegro the adoption is planned for the middle of the year with retroactive effect, which significantly disturbs the plans of the companies and forces them to take on new duties in order to regulate the newly created obligations – it was assessed at the session.
As they stated, the aforementioned regulation will have a negative impact on the operations of 375 companies that generate more than EUR 5 million in revenue.
These are companies that employed over 50,000 workers in 2022. Of the total number of companies that would be affected by this regulation, as many as 157 are from the trade sector. During the public debate on the Draft Law on Solidarity Contribution, the Committee calls for both individual and synergistic action by the PKCG and the largest business associations, so that the controversial law for businessmen can be withdrawn from the procedure – according to a statement published on the PKCG website.
In the focus of the businessmen was also the Stop Inflation campaign, according to which the Board decided, emphasizing its benefits for consumers and positive response in the public.
Traders are sending a strong message to domestic producers to get more involved in the implementation of this action. In addition, certain challenges were pointed out, because trading companies, during the implementation of this action, are faced with the depreciation of stocks of goods in the warehouse, which contributes to the realization of losses for individual items – it was announced.
The board of the trade association once again considered the non-working Sunday issue and it was concluded that this topic is being negotiated without the presence of representatives of the largest employers.
The business community is interested in being at the negotiating table and influencing the modalities of the solution for resuming work on Sundays – it was ordered from the session.
During the session led by the President of the Board, Jovan Lekić, in whose work, in addition to the members, the Vice-President of the Chamber of Commerce Nikola Vujović participated, the Information on the business of the trade sector and the Report on the work of the OU in 2022, and the Work Plan for 2023 were adopted, while The PKCG Fair Activities Program was also presented.
