Municipal revenues from collecting environmental protection fees have dropped by one hundred million dinars, a consequence of the new fee calculation method, which is not an incentive to reduce pollution but on the contrary – reports the Novi Sad-based organization, VOICE (The Vojvodina Research and Analysis Centre).
VOICE assesses that the new calculation method sends the wrong message to polluters, namely “you don’t have to reduce pollution, all you need to do is to pay the environmental protection fee, and you can do whatever you want.” At the same time, it was pointed out that more than 30 municipalities in Serbia have abolished the environmental protection funds.
VOICE adds that the total income of Lajkovac municipality from collecting the environmental protection fee has decreased by about 100 million dinars compared to 2018. The organization also says that the Bor municipality is the biggest loser in terms of the money it collected from the environmental fee, “because it recorded a decrease in revenues by about 220 million dinars.”
The same revenues generated by the Smederevo and Zaječar municipalities are 60 million dinars lower than three years earlier, while in the case of Vrbas, Apatin and Vršac the decline was also quite significant – 45 million dinars.
The representative of the Stanište Ecological Centre, Dejan Maksimović, warns that the current environmental fee is “ridiculously low in relation to the technological interventions that companies should implement to stop pollution” and adds: “The main problem with this new calculation method which is not conducive to reducing pollution.”
Maksimović also says that by 2020, over 30 municipalities had abolished the Local Environmental Protection Budget Fund.
(Danas, 19.06.2022)
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