Second week after the declaration of the state of emergency in the Republic of Serbia was also marked by intensive regulatory activity so that citizens, private and public sectors would adjust to the new modes of functioning and business activities. A summary of key novelties from the previous week shall be presented below.

a. Status of foreigners in the Republic of Serbia

Foreign nationals who legally resided in the Republic of Serbia on the day of declaration of the state of emergency, on either basis stipulated in the Law on Foreigners,  may legally stay in the Republic of Serbia during the state of emergency, without instituting a procedure for further regulation of their status i.e. extension of their previously issued permits.

Also, ID of a foreigner, ID of asylum seeker and ID’s of approved asylum seekers that expired or that will expire during the validity of the Decision on declaration of the state of emergency will be considered as valid until the end of validity of the abovestated decision.

As regards working permits issued to foreign persons under the Law on Employment of Foreigners that expired or that will expire during the validity of the Decision on declaration of the state of emergency will also be considered as valid until the end of validity of the abovestated decision.

b. Deadlines in administrative procedures

Submission of letters in administrative procedure and acts of notification that the inextensible deadlines run from and which have been realised during the state of emergency, in terms of application of the prescribed deadlines, shall be considered as exercised upon expiry of 15 days after the termination of the state of emergency.

Also, the deadlines that are due during the state of emergency and which refer to undertaking of administrative actions, finalisation of administrative procedures and deciding on expressed legal remedies, shall be considered as expired upon the expiry of 30 days after the termination of the state of emergency.

In the procedure of establishment, payment, collection and control of public revenues of taxpayers and payers of customs duties, the application of rules on deadline calculation is exclusively limited to deadlines for submission of legal remedies against first instance decisions and conclusions of relevant tax and customs authorities. In other words, extension of deadlines does not refer to the obligation of paying these public revenues.

In addition, the deadlines prescribed by the Company Law will also not run i.e. those referring to administrative procedures conducted by the Business Registers Agency (e.g. deadlines in restructuring procedures, liquidation, decrease of share capital etc.). These deadlines shall continue to run from the day of termination of the state of emergency.

c. Employment

The Ministry of Economy issued a notice according to which employers are obliged to provide the employees performing working tasks during the curfew hours who have been provided with movement permit by the Ministry of Interior, with appropriate certificate (instead of the working orders used so far), which need to be in a prescribed form and which can be downloaded here.

In addition, the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs published a notice stating that electronic communication with relevant services has been enabled for the purpose of exercising certain rights, namely:

• Applying for salary compensation during maternity leave, as well as leave from work for childcare,
• Applying for child’s health commission, which is submitted by mothers for the first time in order to exercise their right to special childcare;
• Registration in unemployment records;
• Applying for realisation of rights in case of unemployment and other requests submitted to the National Employment Service;
• Applying for realisation of pension right, as well as other rights before the Republic Fund for Pension and Disability Insurance.

Also, decisions for consent to directing employees to paid leave exceeding 45 working days (Article 116. of the Labour Law) will be issued without prior submission of employer’s request for the opinion of the representative syndicate of the industry or business established at the level of the Republic, with validity no later than the day of termination of the state of emergency. In addition, employers will submit the requests electronically and the decision of the Ministry will be delivered in the same manner.

With regard to NBS moratorium on loan and leasing payment obligations (more info in our previous post) which has started to apply from 31 March, for the employees who settle their obligations via attachment of salary, the employers need to temporarily suspend salary attachment on such basis, except for those employees who did not accept the moratorium.

d. Measures of the National Bank of Serbia

NBS decisions stipulate that the deadlines referring to the obligation of providers of payment services to meet all necessary technical requirements for submission of data to the National Bank of Serbia that are kept in the Single register of cash transfer users, as well as those referring to the obligation of banks to meet all necessary technical requirements for submission of data to the National Bank of Serbia that are kept in the Single safe register, and to notify the bank thereof, which they were due to perform by 15 April 2020, shall not apply.

Since the obligation to submit certain data to the National Bank of Serbia according to the regulations on these matters is still valid, it is also obligatory to meet technical requirements, however it is not obligatory to notify the National Bank of Serbia thereof.

During the state of emergency, documentation that is submitted in the procedure of notifying the National Bank of Serbia on foreign credit transactions may be submitted in electronic form, in pdf, while thus submitted documentation shall also be submitted in printed form within ten days after the termination of the state of emergency.

e.  Submission of financial statements

Deadlines shall be extended for submission of annual financial statements of direct budget beneficiaries of the Republic of Serbia i.e. budgets of autonomous provinces and local self-government units, annual budget statements of the Republic of Serbia i.e. budget statements of autonomous provinces, local self-government units and organisations for mandatory social insurance, as well as consolidated statement of the Republic of Serbia and consolidated statements of cities for 2019.

There have been no information so far as to the extension of deadlines for submission of financial statements in accordance with the Law on Accounting.

f. Acting with fiscal cash registers during temporary work suspension

Tax Administration published a notice for payers who temporarily close their retail shops due to the introduced state of emergency and clarified that such entities need not defiscalize their fiscal cash registers, unless they register the temporary suspension of activity with the Business Registers Agency.

In such case, the subject of fiscalisation need to electronically report temporary closing of their shops to the responsible Tax administration which keeps the register of fiscal cash registers, and, if possible, to visibly display notice that the shop or part thereof does not work in accordance with the stated decision.

If the subject of fiscalisation continues to work from home, fiscal cash register may be moved to the place of business activity, however it will be necessary to electronically report to the responsible Tax administration which keeps the register of fiscal cash registers.

The subjects may submit notices on temporary suspension of work and/or work from home in electronic form to the responsible Tax administration office according to the seat of the taxpayer (the list of e-mail addresses is available here).

g. Restricted export of goods

The decisions referring to the export of medicines and certain goods i.e. main commodities important for the population have also been amended.

Namely, they stipulate the obligation for domestic manufacturers, importers and exporters of medicines to undertake by statement of the responsible person to continuously and smoothly supply the market of the Republic of Serbia with all medicines they manufacture and import, whereas the decision prohibiting the export of certain goods was amended as regards the goods that prohibition was introduced/abolished for.

h. Medical devices and medicines

Regulation of the Government of the Republic of Serbia prescribes that, during the state of emergency and for the purpose of efficient suppression of epidemics and treatment of those infected with COVID-19 disease, medical devices and medicines which are not produced with application of the prescribed standards may be purchased, used and used in treatment under certain conditions.

Namely, these medical devices and medicines are not registered with the Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices of Serbia (“ALIMS”), but they may be the subject of donation or purchase aimed at suppression of epidemics caused by corona virus.

Regardless of their business operations, employers are allowed to import masks and gloves for their employees, at facilitated procedure. Customs administration stated that such import can be done on basis of:

• ALIMS opinion that the particular masks or gloves are not considered as medical devices,
• Decision or certificate of border sanitary inspector, whether the masks/gloves fall within the customs code connected with ISCS codes U65/I65 or not and
• Statements of importers that the masks/gloves are imported in order to protect the employees from COVID-19 disease.

With regard to provision of ALIMS opinion, a more detailed instruction is published on their website.

 i. Movement prohibition

The period of general prohibition of movement for persons has been corrected. Namely, the movement of persons in the territory of the Republic of Serbia is prohibited on working days from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m., while on Saturdays the prohibition lasts from 3 p.m. to 3 a.m. and on Sunday from 3 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Also, the persons who were pronounced self-isolation measure that has not expired until 28 March 2020 have been subject to the extended measure for another 14 days, starting from the day of expiry of the previous measure.

The first criminal proceedings have been instituted and judgments passed against persons who violated self-isolation measures. The proceedings have been conducted via video link. However, it is questionable whether there are legal grounds for such actions, since the legal document introducing this form of court proceedings collides with the Criminal Procedure Code and ultimately with the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia. In relation thereto, the Serbian Bar Association addressed the Ministry of Justice, and Belgrade Bar Association addressed the High Judicial Council.

This article is to be considered as exclusively informative, with no intention to provide legal advice.
If you should need additional information, please contact us directly.