SERBIA: Amendments to the Decree on the Attraction of Direct Investments
Newsletter 133
The Decree on Amendments and Additions to the Decree on Establishing Criteria for Granting Incentives for Attracting Direct Investments (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia”, No. 39/2023 and 43/2023) entered into force (hereinafter: the Decree).
The most important change is the increase in the threshold for minimum investments in tangible and intangible assets from EUR 100.000,00 to EUR 300.000,00, as provided for in the previous decrees.
In addition, the amended decree abolished the subdivision of local self-government units, which were divided into groups according to their level of development. Instead, it introduced a division by region: the Belgrade region, then the Vojvodina region, and finally the Šumadija and Western Serbia region, the Southern and Eastern Serbia region, and the Kosovo and Metohija region.
For investments of special importance, the previous regulation provided for a period of ten years for the realisation of the investment project (projects that would employ more than 500 people and where the investment exceeds five million euros). Now, the ten-year term applies to all investments exceeding five million euros.
Funds may not be provided for the implementation of investment projects in the sectors of transport, hotels and restaurants, gambling, trade, production of synthetic fibers, coal and steel, mining, tobacco and tobacco products, arms and ammunition, shipbuilding of self-propelled merchant vessels over 100 gross registered tons, airports, utilities, energy, broadband networks, fisheries and aquaculture, and software development, unless they are related to the improvement of products, production processes or the provision of services by service centres.
The Decree pays special attention to implementing technologies and investment projects which minimise environmental impact.
The amount of funds to be allocated is determined either on the basis of the proven costs of investments in tangible or intangible assets or on the basis of the proven costs of gross salaries for new jobs, which remained unchanged in relation to the previous regulations.
The minimum investment requirements for the allocation of funds are determined by region and are as follows:
