“Aleksandar Vucic’s decision to allocate 60 euro to each adult Serbian citizen and 110 euro to pensioners (as part of anti-pandemic measures) is unreasonable and inappropriate,” said economist Ljubomir Madzar, adding that “it is completely irrelevant whether there is money in the budget or not for this purpose as the state is borrowing it and the public debt is growing as a result of it.”
“If the idea is to provide social support, then it should be selective, and not frontal, given the negative birthrate and the bad demographic situation in Serbia. This discriminates against families with an above-average number of children,” Madzar said.
President Aleksandar Vucic said earlier that in May and November, the state will distribute 30 euro in aid to each adult citizen who registers for it, while pensioners will receive a total of 110 euro each.
According to Madzar, it is justified to borrow money to counterbalance the loss caused by the pandemic, “but not for these types of aid, which is unprecedented in the world”.
“The decision to allocate 100 euro to each adult Serbian citizen last year seemed to be motivated by the elections, and only Vucic knows why he wants to repeat the same mistake, perhaps to secure votes for the next election,” Madzar adds,
He underlines that it is irrational to distribute aid to pensioners equally, because “there are pensioners with high pensions. If they really wanted to help pensioners, they need to change the relevant law.”
(N1, 27.01.2021)
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