Although the fee for membership in the Serbian Chamber of Commerce is prescribed by law, some businessmen they claim that they do not get any benefits from membership, and see no reason to pay.
Payment of membership fee Serbian Chamber of Commerce it is mandatory for all business entities registered in Serbia. However, some of them do not want to pay the membership fee, because they believe that this levy does not provide them with any benefits. PKS is now sending warnings to these companies before they are charged, writes Dunja Marić for New Economy.
In one of these warnings, which New Economy had a look at, PKS states that since 2017 the membership fee has been introduced as an expression of "express legal obligations" for all economic entities. The membership fee, as stated, provides the Chamber with the largest part of the necessary funds for its work. It is added that the membership fee gives members the right "to enjoy all the benefits that membership brings."
Whoever does not pay by the specified deadline must also pay interest
PKS companies send reminders to debtors with calculated late payment interest. Thus, the company whose reprimand we had access to has to pay a total of almost 88.000 dinars. Of that amount, 62.300 are the arrears of membership fees, while around 25.500 dinars represent the amount of late interest. However, the company will not have to pay default interest if it settles its debts no later than eight days after receiving the reminder.
If, on the other hand, the company still does not want to pay the debt, the PKS states that it will be forced to "without further delay start the procedure for forced collection of its legal claim".
In the end, the PKS states that it is ready for "an additional gesture of understanding". In particular, it is willing to consider proposals from its members who owe money for membership fees for payment dynamics.
The owner of the company that received the warning says that, of all that PKS offers, the only thing that would mean to her company would be the transfer of space, which is a practice - but she has not been given the opportunity to do so.
"There is no problem with my company paying the membership fee for the services of the Chamber, but it is necessary that we receive some service before that. Otherwise, we are put in an unequal position compared to other companies in the same industry that have received benefits from the PKS, so I am afraid that we will not be able to pay the membership fee because there is no basis for it," says the interviewee of New Economy.
As she adds, she does not see any reason why her company should be a member of PKS and why the Chamber forces companies to become members and pay membership fees for an organization that it does not see any benefit for its business and of which it does not want to be a member.
How much is the membership fee?
According to the Law on Chambers of Commerce, the membership fee is mandatory for all legal entities registered in Serbia. The amount companies pay depends on their annual income and the classification of the company. Thus, smaller firms have lower membership fees than firms with large revenues.
For example, micro legal entities pay a monthly membership fee in the amount of 600 dinars plus one-twelfth of 0,004 percent of their income. That amount, one-twelfth of 0,004 percent of business income, does not change, but a fixed amount is added to it, depending on the size of the company. Therefore, small legal entities pay another 3.600 dinars, medium-sized legal entities 43.000 dinars, and large legal entities another 160.000 dinars. However, the highest monthly membership fee is 185.000 dinars.
PKS members, i.e. companies whose business income is less than 20 million dinars, do not pay the part of the membership fee that is calculated on the basis of income, but only a fixed amount. Also, PKS members who have business income of less than one million dinars are not obliged to pay membership fees.
The business income on the basis of which the membership fee is calculated can be found in the financial reports, and for the current year, data from 2023 is used.
However, the official decisions do not say anything about the benefits of companies that pay school fees. We tried to get that information from the Chamber of Commerce, but until the publication of this text, they did not answer the questions we sent to them.
"Membership should be voluntary"
Dragoljub Rajić, coordinator of the Network for Business Support, said in an interview with Nova Ekonomija that the Law on Chambers of Commerce was imposed back in the 90s, only to be repealed shortly afterwards. However, PKS has been charging membership fees again since 2017.
"In economically developed countries, there are different models of the functioning of chambers of commerce. For example, in Germany and Austria, only large companies pay membership fees, so that small companies can receive certain services from the chambers. This is the case in European countries, where governments are the services of their economies, where they are aware that without the economy there is no increase in the standard of living," says Rajić.
In Serbia, on the other hand, the Chamber of Commerce has assumed, according to him, a privileged position.
"All discussions on new and changes to existing laws are held in the PKS, businessmen are informed about it too late, so they can't even try to change anything. Such a Chamber is just another step towards turning Serbia into a totalitarian state, in which all decisions from the top of the government must be implemented. In our country, every law is introduced that, as a rule, is always proposed by the ministries, in which the economy does not even participate. There are also problems from various associations, which complain that the PKS is trying to take a key role by force in certain guilds, so that later they can relativize and reduce to a minimum their problems and demands they have for the state", says Rajić.
According to the words of our interlocutor, the Chamber of Commerce sends reminders before the payment when it lacks funds.
"When there are not so many transfers from the state, they remember that there are some companies that have not paid membership fees. I have no information on whether they ever actually sued someone, but I am sure that the majority of businessmen are against the payment of mandatory membership fees. An economic referendum should be held, so that everyone can have their say. The problem is that the role of the chamber should be to channel the problems of the economy, propose changes to the law, and in our country it is the channel between the political elite and businessmen. This payment system should be abolished and businessmen should be given the choice of whether they want to to pay the membership fee", concludes Rajić.
