At the session held on 22 February, members of the Finance Committee discussed submissions made by Poslovni Prostor Vracar Public Enterprise, the company in charge of leasing municipally-owned office space, and the Office of the Public Defence Attorney of the Zemun Municipal Assembly. They approached the Committee asking for its opinion on the application of Article 17 of the Sales Tax Act. Both institutions consider that, under provisions of the Act on Public Revenues and Expenditures, sales tax should not be paid on public revenue from fees for renting state-owned real estate, and that tax bodies have taken a contrary stance regarding these legal requirements. The Committee resolved to ask the Legislative Committee of the National Assembly to pass its opinion on the legality of sales tax assessed and paid for services of leasing office space owned by the state. It was resolved that these request should be forwarded to the Ministry of Finance, so that files of all court rulings and opinions of the Ministry of Finance from 2001 to 2004 can be completed.

At today’s session, the Finance Committee resolved to set the deadline for submissions of financial reports for 2004 to the Committee by political parties, as provided for in the Act on the Financing of Political Parties, for 15 April 2005.

At its nineteenth session, held on 28 October 2004, the Finance Committee had resolved to initiate adoption of amendments and modifications to the Act on the Financing of Political Parties, and that deadlines for submitting reports by political parties to the Finance Committee should be made more precise and harmonised, in order to bring them into line with accounting and auditing regulations. As provided for in this decision, the next session of the Committee is to see the constituting of a working group charged with formulating a proposal of amendments and modifications to the Act on the Financing of Political Parties.