Annual financial reports to be received only by Business Registers Agency starting January 2010

Starting the New Year, the Business Registers Agency (BRA) will be the only institution to receive the annual financial reports.

At the recommendation of the unit for comprehensive reform of regulations, the Government of Serbia has accepted the economy sector's appeal for making it possible for the companies to submit their annual performance reports to one institution - BRA, instead of submitting to three different places - the National Bank of Serbia, the Tax Administration and the Business Registers Agency.

Just like in the previous years, financial reports can be submitted in electronic form, and the possibility of submission of paper documents for those who want, as well as mailing of the documentation, will be retained.

Through takeover of the employees from the Credit Worthiness Center, the new register of financial reports will be constituted in BRA, and that is where all financial reports for all juristic persons in Serbia will be filed. According to the current data, the National Bank of Serbia has 175,000 juristic persons whose obligation is to submit annual reports. Among them are economic subjects that are registered with the registry of business subjects, as well as all other juristic persons that have, so far, not been obliged to submit their annual reports on performance to BRA.

According to preliminary estimates, collecting of financial reports and issuing of certificates of credit worthiness in the same institution will cut the expenses of the economy by about 6m EUR.

- BRA received 112,500 financial reports this year, while about 108,000 registered reports were submitted to BRA in 2008. Following this change, the inflow of reports should be increased by 50% - people from the Business Registers Agency announced.

People in the Business Registers Agency explain that, in addition to lower costs, the aim of simplification of the previous procedure is that the control and quality of reports be raised to a higher level. In that way, BRA would become one of the most important information centers in Serbia, as the institution that runs the comprehensive database in the economic segment.