The Commercial Court has issued a verdict in the dispute brought against the state by the company "Univerzal Monte" regarding the construction of the Meljine-Petijevići road in Herceg Novi, by which it obliged the state to pay that private company 4.000.000 million euros with default interest from February 1, 2022. .
In addition, the court rejected as unfounded the request for the payment of VAT in the amount of 840.000 euros, which this company also demanded in a lawsuit. In addition, the judgment dismissed as illegal the state's counterclaim, which sought to establish that the agreement on the termination of the Agreement on Construction, Operation and Transfer (BOT) for the Meljine-Petijevići road is null and void.
This judgment of the Commercial Court is not legally binding, so there is a right to appeal it to the Court of Appeal.
The contract with the company, behind which stands the Serbian businessman Vuk Hamović, which built the Meljine-Petijevići road in 2008 under an arrangement based on which it was supposed to use it for 20 years and return it to the ownership of the Municipality of Herceg Novi, was agreed on May 7, 2021. terminated by the Government of Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić, after which the toll on this section stopped being collected.
At that time, the government tasked the Ministry of Finance to, according to the agreement, provide four million euros in the budget for the following year for the payment of compensation to "Univerzal Monte". The ministry, which was managed by the then current Prime Minister Milojko Spajić, did not do that. Instead, at the last session of the former Government in April 2022, it was concluded that this money should be paid from the budget reserve.
The Government of Dritan Abazović did not fulfill this obligation, but forwarded the documentation related to this case to the Special State Prosecutor's Office, while "Univerzal Monte" initiated a lawsuit against the state demanding the payment of four million plus VAT. The state responded with a counterclaim seeking annulment of the agreement.
"The Economic Court of Montenegro issued a first-instance verdict in the legal matter of the defendant "Univerzal Monte", against the defendant - the counter-plaintiff of Montenegro - the Ministry of Finance, in which in the first paragraph he partially adopted the claim and obliged the defendant to pay the plaintiff, in the name of the debt from the agreement on the termination of the BOT road Meljine - Petijevići from January 10, 2007, concluded on May 07.05.2021, 4.000.000. year, pay the amount of 01 euros, with statutory default interest starting from February 2022, 8, until payment, within 840.000 days from the date of finality of the verdict. The court rejected as unfounded the claim of the plaintiff in the case in which it was requested to oblige the defendant to pay the amount of 01 euros, with statutory default interest starting from February 2022, 4.000.000 until payment, and which amount represents VAT calculated on 10 euros from the first paragraph of the verdict. In the third paragraph, the court dismissed as impermissible the defendant's counterclaim, which sought to establish that the agreement on the termination of the BOT road Meljine - Petijevići from January 2007, 7, concluded on May 2021, XNUMX, is null and void," reads the judgment of the Commercial Court. .
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