Abazović proposes that part of the debt of the Health Fund be returned by selling confiscated cigarettes

"Is there anything more logical, to pay part of the shortfall in the Fund from these goods that have become our property today," said the Prime Minister of Montenegro, Dritan Abazović

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Abazović during a visit to the Free Zone of Port Bar, Photo: Ana Burić
Abazović during a visit to the Free Zone of Port Bar, Photo: Ana Burić
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

The President of the Government of Montenegro, Dritan Abazović, regarding the debt of the Health Fund of 60 million euros, said that this debt did not arise last year, that it is a decade-old debt and that he hopes that it will be serviced in the correct way.

"Is there anything more logical, to pay part of the shortfall in the Fund from these goods that have become our property today. I am not putting pressure on it to be like that. In order for the country to survive, it must change its image," said Abazović during today's visit to the Free Zone of the Port Bar, where around 145.000 packs of cigarettes stored in the Port of Bar, worth tens of millions of euros, are confiscated.

Minister of Finance Aleksandar Damjanović said that the intention is to export the goods that were found today and that will be moved, after the inventory has been taken out of Montenegro.

"It cannot be placed on our market. We are reaching the level where there is little space left for the non-light market. First, we will find mechanisms for the excise burden, so that it would make sense to take it out of Montenegro under full state supervision. That way we will generate revenue serious means," said Damjanović.

He said that legal solutions were not in favor of strengthening the Health Care Fund.

"Through the conversation and possible rebalancing, we will round it off, the Fund must return it. I hope that the Fund will get a credible person, I hope from the health sector," said Damjanović.

According to "Vijesti" information, there are a total of 165.612 packs of cigarettes in the Port of Bar, worth about 122 million euros (according to the recorded customs debt), and according to estimates, they are worth over 60 million euros on the black market.

Decisions on banning the storage of tobacco in the port were made by the Government in June and December last year, and the owners of cigarettes were extended the deadline to move them from the warehouse in the port.

After the extended deadlines for the export of tobacco products expired a few months ago, the UPC ordered the Bar Customs Office to confiscate the tobacco products in stock.

The Revenue Administration informed the Bar Customs Office that it should reject the requests for extension of the deadline of subjects who keep tobacco products in stock, and whose deadlines for taking out the goods have expired.

In the notification, which "Vijesti" has access to, the UPC stated that the Customs Office should deliver the notification to the parties as quickly as possible, and after the delivery of the Decision on the rejection of the request for extension of the deadlines, "it is necessary to proceed with the implementation of the instructions of the Ministry of Finance and make decisions on confiscation of goods".

The news previously announced that the Government's plan is to sell cigarettes, whose owners do not want to pay excise taxes and tobacco, on the Montenegrin market, after the confiscation procedure, to sell them on the international market, and in this way, for the first time, money will be generated from the transit of tobacco products through Montenegro.

It is planned for the Government to adopt a lex specialis in order to introduce cigarettes to the market.

Police officers, in mid-June 2021, began control in the Port of Bar, checking the documentation of twenty companies that import and store tobacco products in the Free Zone depots.

At the end of July 2021, the Government adopted a decision banning the storage of tobacco products within the Free Zone of the Port of Bar, and the current Prime Minister Dritan Abazović then announced "that this move has finally dealt a strong blow to organized criminal groups, which have been organizing smuggling through the port of Montenegro for decades." .

After the ban on storing cigarettes, last summer two packages of cigarettes disappeared from the warehouse, which is why criminal proceedings were initiated against several people on suspicion of damaging the state coffers for several million in unpaid duties.

The last theft of cigarettes in the Free Zone of the Port of Bar was discovered on March 2, after it was noticed that someone was trying to repaint the "eye" of the surveillance camera that partially covers part of the warehouse of the Mojkovac company.

The customs officials determined that the state was damaged by this theft for about 225.000 euros.

Less than a month before that - on February 7, it was discovered that the seal was damaged at the "Montenegro duvan komerca" warehouse, and immediately, by order of superiors, the head of security at the Port of Adria was asked to review the video surveillance to determine whether there were unauthorized entries into that facility .

The investigation established that from December 28, 2021 until that day, truckloads of cigarettes were taken from the warehouse of that Mojkovac company every fourth day.

At the time, the Police Administration officially announced that during the investigation, it was found that 11.349 packs of various types of cigarettes were missing.

They also determined who was loading cigarettes, into whose trucks and when, and arrested several suspects for cigarette smuggling and abuse of official position.

The new Government Decision on the prohibition of storage, which was published in the Official Gazette on December 31, was adopted with reference to Article 5 of the Law on Free Zones, which states that "in the zone and warehouse, economic activities that do not pose a risk to human health and /or the environment, material goods and state security, in accordance with the law".

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