When adopting new anti-epidemic measures, the Ministry of Health should focus on increasing the number of vaccinated population, "and not on harassing restaurateurs", announced the non-governmental organization "Udruženje ugostitelja Podgorica".
They called on the Ministry of Finance and Social Welfare to abandon the planned increase in the VAT rate for caterers.
We transmit the announcement in its entirety:
"According to established practice, which has been in force since the beginning of the COVID 19 virus pandemic, the first to be hit when it comes to restrictive measures are, of course, caterers.
This association has repeatedly advertised and held a large number of meetings with representatives of the executive power in its work so far, in order to contribute to ensure that the decisions of the Ministry of Health have as few harmful consequences as possible for the hospitality industry and the economy of Montenegro in general, given the fact that the share of the hospitality industry is and its impact on budget receipts is very significant.
However, as before, the practice of devastation of the tourism industry, specifically catering, continues.
This association believes that some of the previous decisions made by the Ministry of Health had their own quality, however, what is chronically disputed is the implementation of those decisions.
We believe that it is necessary for the executive power to make a maximum effort so that the population undergoes vaccination in a significantly larger number, and not, as is the case now, to justify its failure in this regard by stifling the hospitality industry. The measures that restaurateurs are obliged to observe in their establishments are more than rigorous, and by reducing working hours again, they are put in a hopeless situation, for the umpteenth time.
The right way to the sustainable functioning of the tourism industry is certainly to increase the number of vaccinated population, and in this direction, the representatives of the executive power should set a personal example. However, we encounter the paradoxical situation that some of the leaders of the executive power refuse to be vaccinated, justifying this fact in a very frivolous way, which insults the intelligence of every sane person.
During that time, every employee in the hospitality industry MUST be vaccinated, under threat of punishment. We think this is the definition of discrimination!
Furthermore, regarding the announced increase in the rate of value added tax in the hospitality industry from the current 7% to 21%, we point out that this is, to put it mildly, reckless.
In this direction, the International Monetary Fund expressed its opinion during the preparation of the preliminary findings regarding the proposed package of economic reforms "Europe Now", albeit in a subtle way.
Is it possible that in the midst of the recovery of the Montenegrin economy after the catastrophic consequences of the COVID 19 virus pandemic, the Government of Montenegro is making such moves?!?!?! This is especially so because due to the increase in the price of fuel, the increase in the price of basic necessities of life, the standard of citizens suffers more and more.
The announcement of such decisions by the competent ministry is even less clear, when you take into account the fact that a record amount of VAT was collected in the tourism sector this year, despite the fact that it amounts to 7%. In the previous period, the front was presented to the public as one of the undertakings of the executive power.
And it is more than obvious that the executive power, with populist and political moves, is deceiving the public about the improvement of citizens' standards through increased wages, while on the other hand, the increase in levies on the tourism industry and the hospitality industry is not abating.
This kind of economic policy and decisions of the executive power, if they continue, will lead to the fact that there will be nothing left of tourism and hospitality, because the restrictions, both economic and sanitary-health, have gotten out of control and threaten, first of all, the already poor standard of citizens and then hospitality activity as such.
We appeal that when adopting new measures, the Ministry of Health of Montenegro focuses on increasing the number of vaccinated population, and not on harassing caterers, and the Ministry of Finance and Social Welfare to abandon the planned increase in the VAT rate, as this leads to an increase in the prices of catering services and represents an attack on citizens' budgets and ultimately leads to negative effects first of all on the business of caterers, and then on the budget of Montenegro.
We invite the competent authorities to consult this activity in order to make decisions directly related to caterers and to organize meetings on this topic as soon as possible or to form a working group, in which representatives of all associations of caterers at the municipal level will be members, and which would zealously monitored the impact of the pandemic on the tourism economy and proposed appropriate measures," the announcement concludes.
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