And is it really so, read it on time, if you do not want to be penalized

As of 01 March 2018 pursuant to Article 4a of the Law on Deadlines for Settlement of Monetary Obligations in Commercial Transactions, the creditors are obligated to register all issued invoices as well as all other payment requests regarding commercial transactions where the subjects of public sector are debtors in the Central Invoice Registry, before they are delivered to debtors. This includes those subjects that execute payments over the accounts that are kept with the Treasury Administration. For now, regarding subjects of public sector that execute payments through business banks, there is no obligation for invoice registration, payments are performed in agreed period.

Article 4b of the same Law prescribed that the debtors shall settle their monetary obligations from invoices and other payment requests (from Article 4a, paragraph 1. of this Law) only in case they are properly registered in the Central Invoice Registry, which is determined by Registry review.  

The Law, among others, defines deadlines on which is it mandatory to settle monetary obligations between companies, and between the public sector and companies. All stated novelties should have a positive effect, primarily to the effectiveness and security of collection, which is very important. When this is accomplished this will reflect on better planning and managing of liquid assets of the public sector and companies.

What are the penalties in the new law?

Monetary penalty for the violation of the company (company or public sector subject) are from RSD100.000 to RSD 2.000.000, in case issued invoices and other payment requests are not registered in the Central Invoice Registry.

Central Invoice Registry is kept by the Treasury Administration

Treasury Administration allows access, entry and review of entered data to all creditors and debtors in the Central Invoice Registry using a special IT system. Creditors must register invoices and other payment requests through a web application by themselves.   

Rulebook defines procedure for Registry access. So, users (creditors and debtors) are obligated to enter data for identification in the app, after which they receive the filled access form. Received form shall be printed, signed and sealed and delivered to the Treasury Administration as registration request. This document shall be accompanied with the following documentation:

• authorization of the creditor for a natural person (administrator) for the right of access and all authorizations for working in the registry, signed by the representative
• authorization for the person receiving the user account (if not administrator), also signed by the representative (authorized person)
• certificate on approved temporary residence and approval of temporary residence, in case authorized person is a foreign citizen.

If the submitted documentation is valid, the administrator or person authorized for the receiving the user account is issued a takeover certificate in the organization unit of the Treasury Administration, that must be signed by a person taking over such account and employee of the Treasury Administration. Later, the administrator may access the Central Invoice Registry and create its own password.

This completes the registration procedure, and entry of regulated data from invoices may commence.

SVM has, as a bookkeeping agency, in its desire to provide quality bookkeeping services, always supported the automation of sending, receiving and reviewing documentation. In this sense our agency completely supports this project of the Treasury Administration. It seems that Serbia is catching up with modern IT world, and we feel this will bring benefit to domestic business and economy, and this is why we were always for such ideas, and we created some of them.  

Still, since this is a public project, please be aware that it includes deadlines for application and submission of invoices, to which we wanted to point out with this article, so it is necessary to learn the procedure in due time. For all questions, contact our experts here.