These days, a large number of small private companies have received "reprimands" for unpaid membership fees Serbian Chamber of Commerce (PKS), which was sent by the law office "Vuković i partneri AOD", writes Bogdan Petrović for The new economy.
The membership fee of the Chamber was introduced as a legal obligation, after a break of several years, from January 1, 2017. Despite this, a large number of small and micro enterprises did not pay membership fees to the chamber - because they did not see any benefit from membership in the chamber.
Up until now, there have been rare cases where PKS collects its claims through the court: that "luck" has been enjoyed by businessmen who generate slightly higher incomes (the membership fee is determined based on the size of the company and business income).
It seems that Komori is "burnt to the nails", so she hired the aforementioned law firm to try to collect membership fees from micro-enterprises.
These are companies that are really "micro entities", because on average they do not employ more than 2,5 employees (about 95.000 such companies are registered, with a total of 230.000 employees), so the real question of the social justification of "charging" membership fees arises.
Hunting in the dark
The Chamber is demanding all arrears of membership fees and default interest from 2017 until the end of 2024, with the threat of bankruptcy. All this while noting that the costs of the lawsuit, if it comes to it, will be over 50.000 dinars. Admittedly, the Chamber "offers" the write-off of late payment interest if the member complies with the warning and pays the funds within eight days.
It is a kind of, we can freely say, "insolence" and an attempt to hunt in the dark.
These are "temporary" claims, which, according to the Law on Obligations, expire in three years. Along with claims, interest also expires. They should have known all that in the Chamber, and if nothing else, the law firm they hired could have warned them about it.
Businessmen who have not paid the membership fee until now do not need to "take advantage" of the Chamber's offer and pay all claims from 2017, but only the claims due for the previous three years.
It is important to note that the business entity, when paying the outstanding debt to the Chamber, precisely emphasizes that it refers to the membership fee exclusively for the previous three years.
If, despite this, there is a complaint, it is sufficient to lodge an objection and refer to the statute of limitations, and the complaint will be rejected and all costs will be borne by the Chamber.
By attempting to collect outdated claims, the Chamber shows once again that it is only a breeding ground in which a large number of senior party personnel are employed, and not a service for the economy.
Source: New Economy
