Serbia wins EU tax help
The troubled Balkan state of Serbia is seeing its tax system overhauled with the help of a €13.4m project funded by the European Union.
Link: EU wins right to £2.5bn tax breaks
The project will see the opening of a new teaching centre for tax officials in the provincial town of Novi Sad, which will aim to train 1,000 officials in the next 15 months. Three other centres around Serbia will also open.
The tax centres will provide information to the public on the role of the taxpayer in what is one of the last eastern European countries to adopt the standard western liberal capitalist model.
The EU programme ðadministered by the European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR) ð will also upgrade 160 offices of Serbia’s tax authority, supplying IT equipment and work management software.
At the Novi Sad opening ceremony, EAR Belgrade chief Adriano Martins said: ‘Although tax is not always very popular with the public, it remains an essential source of funds for education, health and other public services. The [Serb] government has made reforming the tax system a clear priority.’