Instead of earnings, tax debtors: Budva Municipality initiates forced collection proceedings against the company "Smokva Bay"

The Local Public Revenue Administration of the Municipality of Budva, acting ex officio, initiated the procedure for the forced collection of real estate tax in the amount of 106.077 euros from the company "Smokva Bay".

This is stated in the decision that "Vijesti" had access to, and which is signed by the director of the local public revenue administration. Vesna Kovačević.

This is the second installment of real estate tax for last year for a large land complex of 39 thousand square meters, which the company "Smokva Bay" owns in the Smokvica locality near Režević, where the construction of a luxury resort is planned.

"The taxpayer is ordered to pay within ten days from the date of delivery of this decision to the specified payment accounts. If the taxpayer does not use the deadline for settling tax liabilities, in accordance with the Law on Tax Administration, a measure will be taken to collect the tax debt from the taxpayer's funds, by delivering the decision to the Central Bank of Montenegro. If the taxpayer does not make payment in the decision within the deadline, the tax claim will be secured by establishing a lien (mortgage), which will be subject to a special decision," the document states.

At the end of January 2021, the then Minister of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism Ratko Mitrović gave the green light for the construction of "Smokva Bay" at the Smokvica site near Reževići.

This was the minister's first signature on an investment project since he took office as the first person in Montenegrin urban planning.

Mitrović then approved the conceptual design of a future tourist resort with a five-star hotel in Smokvica, which was submitted to the chief state architect by a consortium of companies “VAS Invest, Boticelli Land Development” and “Ava Development”, backed by Russian-Israeli capital, which intends to invest 260 million euros in the project. “VAS Invest” is the founder of the company “Smokva Bay”.

This finally put an end to the almost decade and a half long agony that investors had been going through, ever since they purchased 13 hectares of land from the locals and the Municipality of Budva in 2005 for an incredible 25 million euros.

In the meantime, investors, who had been waiting for years for the planning documents to be adopted, purchased another four hectares, and two years ago began earthworks and infrastructure construction, for which they spent an additional 12 million euros.

"Smokva Bay", as it was promoted, envisages a complex of two hotels with a residential complex of villas, which will cascade down to the sea, and the construction of a series of accompanying facilities, from recreational to commercial and catering. This is the first private resort on our coast.

The construction of the future resort was supposed to take place in phases, i.e. first a hotel and part of the tourist village with villas, as well as a promenade with supporting facilities, will be built, and then a second hotel and the rest of the residential complex. However, in previous years, apart from some earthworks on the road infrastructure, construction of the complex has not begun, and the entire project has been stalled.

In 2005, when the city was governed by the DPS-SDP coalition, the municipality of Budva, after approval by the local parliament, collected 13 million euros by selling 62 thousand square meters of its land to a consortium of companies in the Smokvica area. This was the largest financial injection that a local government in Montenegro had ever received from the sale of its property. The sale of the land in Smokvica enabled the municipality of Budva to stabilize its financial situation, to regularly pay salaries to its employees, and to start investing.

“VAS Invest, Boticelli Land Development” then bought practically the same number of square meters of land from the locals, paying incredible prices, which marked the beginning of the golden age of real estate sales on the Budva Riviera. However, although they expected to quickly realize their ideas, the investors were soon met with major problems.

A series of solutions for tax debtors

In the past ten days, the Local Public Revenue Administration has issued a series of decisions on the forced collection of real estate taxes.

The Administration has ex officio initiated the procedure for the forced collection of real estate tax in the amount of 85.800 euros from the company "Old Town Invest Group". This is real estate tax for last year on part of the Jadranska straža building in the Old Town of Budva, as well as garage and office space in the "Harmonija" complex on Cape Zavala, which are owned by that company.

The administration also issued an ex officio decision to secure a tax claim, placing a mortgage on the property of the tax debtor, the company "Rekreaturs" from Budva. "Rekreaturs" did not pay the first installment of taxes for last year for a land complex of 33 thousand square meters in the hinterland of Kamenovo beach in the amount of 74.413 euros.