The price of fuel affects the price of retail commodity services, but it cannot be an alibi for anyone, not even the Montenegrin oligarchs, the owners of retail chains, that they have the highest margins in Europe, which is a notorious fact, Minister of Finance Aleksandar Damjanović said in Colors of the Morning.
He says that even when we had a reduction in excise duty on fuel, we did not have an adequate response from the economy and retail chains, they did not reduce the prices of their products.
Montenegro, he adds, is a small economy that has problems with its own agricultural production and supply chains.
"The enormous margins and profits that can be seen in the balance sheets show that the revenues of the retail chains that hold 85 percent in Montenegro have never been higher. We all expect Lidl, because where Lidl comes, prices will be 15-30 percent lower at the start," he concluded.
He points out that the ministry had an initiative in the form of the law on joint contribution, where they were going to tax the extra profit made on such enormous margins.
"That law almost connected the obligations that will have to be paid by those chains to the state with the increase of their margins. It was a show of attacks and silence from the media. Now some are asking what are you going to do about it? That initiative will be again activated. Maybe another government will have other measures," said Damjanović.
EPCG can pay the money to the Institute tomorrow
The obligation of the Dr. Simo Milošević Institute after the signing of the protocol between Montenegro and Serbia will be somewhere around 5,3 million euros, Montenegro will pay it off and credit the Institute for that money, Finance Minister Aleksandar Damjanović said in the Morning Colors.
"The protocol has been defined and during September we will go towards signing the agreement between the Government of Montenegro and the Government of Serbia, so that it is signed and then the payment dynamics are determined. When the obligation is settled, there will be no danger of introducing bankruptcy. There remains a part that is not at all easy, the obligations of the Institute towards the state, employees, creditors. They are not less than 20 million euros, it will not be easy to rehabilitate that situation, but a sustainable solution must be found," said the minister.
He said that an agreement with the health fund in Serbia was considered, where insured persons from Serbia would come to the Institute for treatment and recovery.
"Such an arrangement existed in 2005".
He appealed to the Electric Power Company of Montenegro (EPCG) to pay the money directly to the Institute and said that there is no need to involve the Ministry of Finance and the Government as guarantors, because they cannot do that.
"The people from EPCG know this very well. It was a bit unpleasant and demagogic to make some writing in the media and to mislead the employees of the Institute that the Government should guarantee. It is enough to fulfill the promises of EPCG and to send those 600.000 already tomorrow euro loan to the Institute," said Damjanović.
When asked if they fear that by the time a solution is reached, the Institute will be left without employees, Damjanović says that "what has been done in the last few months, compared to what was not done in the previous 20 years, is not slow, but as fast as possible we are saving the Institute from ruin".
Public finances at an enviable level
Revenues in the budget from January to August amounted to 1,68 billion euros, said Damjanović, which is 32 percent more than last year in the same period and almost 300 million (21 percent) more than the plan.
"These are large funds and it shows that public finances are at an enviable level. For that amount of increased budget revenues, there will be less debt that we planned in the budget for the current year. With these trends of constant growth of budget revenues outside the plan, we are settling all obligations as we promised. We have growth and with value added tax, excise revenue... We will continue these trends in August. The tourist season is still ongoing, so we will see the balance in September," said Damjanović.
He pointed out that from January to September, Montenegro lives on what it has created itself.
"Revenues in the state treasury are at the level of 191 million euros, that is yesterday's data, with 68 million euros of gold. This is an extremely good result. Compared to December 31.12, 2022, when the percentage of public debt in GDP was 67,5 percent now it is 58,19 percent. We have not fallen below 60 percent for a long time. In this way, we sent good messages to the international financial public," said the minister.
He adds that when it comes to debt repayment, there will be no problems to service all obligations, and that if there are additional debts, it will be to create a fiscal reserve for the beginning of the next year.
Fuel prices "not exactly record high"
When it comes to fuel prices and excise taxes, Damjanović says that now the price of diesel is lower than when we had the first reduction in excise taxes.
"When we compare retail fuel prices with the region, Kosovo and Albania are above us, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are below, and Serbia and Slovenia are at the same level as us."
Damjanović said that they are carefully following the developments on the market of oil and oil derivatives.
"If there are major disturbances, we will intervene. It is a fact that the price of fuel has been increased several times, but the price of diesel is at the same level as when we changed it for the first time last year. They are not exactly record prices," he claims.
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