The Local Public Revenue Administration has initiated the procedure for the forced collection of real estate tax from the Podgorica-based company "Budva Heights", after a claim of 10 thousand euros in unpaid liabilities for a five-hectare land complex at the foot of the Košljun hill opposite Cape Zavala at the very entrance to Budva became due.
This is stated in the decision that "Vijesti" had access to.
Palestinian businessman's company Muhammad Borhan Rashid, the municipal administration calculated that he should pay 2024 euros in real estate tax for 20.225, while half of that amount has now been collected, because the obligation has not been settled. The total amount claimed for interest is 10.334 euros.
"The taxpayer is ordered to pay within 10 days from the date of delivery of this decision. If "Budva Heights" fails to pay within the specified period, the tax authority will take enforcement measures, namely collection from the taxpayer's funds, collection from property (movable and immovable), or will secure the tax claim by establishing a lien on the taxpayer's property," the decision states, adding that the Central Bank will execute the enforcement decision.
Rashid, former advisor to the Palestinian leader Jasera Arafata, for whom there was a warrant for fraud, he founded a company in Montenegro 18 years ago, which changed its name three times. It was originally called “Pioneer investments”, then renamed “Monte mena investments”, and finally renamed “Budva heights”. Rašid’s company “Monte Mena investment” registered the land on Košljun in January 2017, although it had traded the land in 2007 through its company “Peonir investment” for 20 million euros. It is a land complex that borders a two-hectare plot, which until three and a half years ago was managed by the Podgorica company “Global Montenegro” of the former president of the state and honorary leader of the DPS Milo Đukanović.
The company "Budva Heights", when it comes to business, is not doing well, so, judging by the latest financial statement submitted to the Tax Administration, it ended 2023 in a deficit of 65.843 euros, while the total debt accumulated to 14,4 million euros.
The value of the land on Košljun remained unchanged at 8.090.000 euros. The land remained unused for construction purposes. In May 2021, “Budva Heights” sent an urgent request to the then Minister of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism Ratko Mitrović, requesting that the government department issue them with Urban Planning and Technical Conditions for an attractive land complex. They complained at the time that the government had ignored them for two full years before that. Duško Marković who did not respond to their letters and requests.
In 2007, Rašid decided to invest in Montenegro, and after selling the land complex at the foot of Košljun, he also bought 42 square meters of the former military base on Skočiđevojca, near Režević, for 66 million euros through his company “Monte mena”. However, although the construction of a new small town was announced on the land complex on the foam of the sea, practically nothing happened. Due to an unpaid loan of 5,28 million euros, Hypo Alpe Adria Development Bank sold Skočiđevojca for 7,2 million euros to the Austrian Meinl Bank AG. The land on Skočiđevojca is now owned by the Cypriot company “KDP Promotion and Investments Limited”. The Cypriot company’s chief state architect gave approval for the conceptual design of the tourist complex, which caused a revolt among the locals, and the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Heritage stopped their project for a year.
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