Collect the contributions and we don't need the IMF

The Union of Free Trade Unions (USS) asked the Government to update the work of the Tax Administration on collecting taxes and contributions for employees who are in a legal employment relationship, as well as to compare the data of Monstat and the Tax Administration on the number of employees in order to determine which employees do not pay taxes and contributions.

"These demands are part of the proposals for measures to suppress the budget deficit that the Union proposed to the Government, in order to avoid unacceptable proposals from the IMF, which would further collapse the standards of employees and citizens.

They will be considered at the session of the Social Council, which is scheduled for Wednesday," USS Secretary General Srđa Keković told "Vijesta" yesterday.

He pointed out that data on who does not regularly pay contributions for social security, but also for all taxes, should be made public.

The Pension and Disability Insurance Fund (PIO) has been recording a deficit for the third year due to the insufficient amount of income generated on the basis of contributions, which is compensated from the state budget. The deficit for 2012 was projected at 152,8 million euros, in 2011 it was 145,3 million, and in 2010 it was 99,85 million.

According to the plan, the Fund intends to earn EUR 2012 million from contributions in 225,8, while the payment of pensions will cost EUR 382 million, which is why the losses will be covered by EUR 3 million from the state budget.

And while, according to the plan, the payment of pensions will be "covered" with 59 percent of the paid contributions, it remains unknown who owes the state dues on that basis and in what amount. The director of the PIO Fund, Dušan Perović, claims that he does not have this information, as does the relevant Ministry of Finance, which at the beginning of 2010 included all funds and the Employment Office in the system of treasury operations.

Payments delayed for 136.879 workers

"When we were proving representativeness in 2010, we received data from Monstat and the Tax Administration on the number of employees for 2009, which we compared and which drastically differed in the figure of 38.000 unregistered workers.

The data of those two institutions should be compared in order to suppress illegal work.

According to our research, in 2009, for 136.879 workers in a legal employment relationship, the Tax Administration did not collect EUR 59,6 million in contributions for mandatory social insurance, so it is necessary to update the work in that part," said Keković, adding that he assumed that the same the situation happened both before and after 2009.

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