BAJATOVIC: South Stream to pay tax to Serbia

(Dusan Bajatovic)

A Russian-Serbian company that will implement the South Stream gas pipeline project in the territory of Serbia has been established in Switzerland to make the funding cheaper, Srbijagas CEO Dusan Bajatovic said Thursday (11 July 2013).

Bajatovic told a conference on South Stream that the South Stream Srbija company, in which Gazprom held a 51-percent stake and Srbijagas a 49-percent stake, had been founded in Cug, pointing out that "Switzerland is no offshore zone."

Bajatovic stressed that all the work on the implementation of the South Stream project in Serbia would be coordinated by the Juzni Tok Srbija company from Novi Sad that was owned by the company founded in Switzerland.

- Profit will go through the company in Novi Sad, and it will be taxed in Serbia at a rate of 15 percent. Any capital transferred to Switzerland would be taxed at 5 percent in Serbia - said Bajatovic.

Serbian Energy Ministry Zorana Mihajlovic said that the ministry had requested to see the entire documentation and statute of the company that would manage the South Stream project implementation in Serbia.