Open Letter to Bozidar Djelic, Finance Minister of Serbia, Regarding the Crime Being Committed Against the Printed Media

The previous regime extended the applicability of this regulation to include the printed media, along with bulk goods, varnish, pantyhose, rechargeable batteries, etc.  This regulation stipulates that daily newspapers must pay tax on 90 percent of all printed copies, while weeklies and periodicals must pay tax on 80 percent of all their printed copies - that is to say, we are only permitted 10 and 20 percent, respectively, returned copies.

This puts us in a position of having to pay tax on income we did not make under conditions where the number of our returned copies exceeds the respective levels of 10 and 20 percent prescribed by this regulation, which is basis for a Constitutional Court appeal, assuming there were such a court in the land of Serbia.

The regulation is fundamentally anti-reformist in spirit, because a tax policy embodied in this regulation is intended to dampen production and to stimulate a "petty" way of doing business (without any risks).  Simply put, it limits development as an element in the business planning of publishers.

In order to increase their circulation, publishers must take on the risk of a high percentage of returned copies, expecting to make a larger profit in this way.  This regulation forces them to target only tried markets where the number of returned copies can be easily controlled, where they will be forced to try to increase their profit by raising their price.

The history of this regulation indicates best its anti-reformist character.  It was drafted in the same package as the infamous Law on Information by the previous leftist-radical government, with the intention of preventing the growth in the circulation of printed media which did not agree with them.  "Their" newspapers were freed from all taxes, anyway, so that this regulation was intended as a welcome convenience in molesting publishers who were under close scrutiny from financial police as things already stood.

It was very expensive to try to take on the risk of increasing circulation because, as a rule, it also meant an increase in the number of returned copies.  If the fines which we were obliged to pay while the Law on Information was in force could be compared to being hit by a freight train, then the tax policy which we hope you will stop to support could be compared to continuously being run over by the same freight train, at 15 day intervals.

In modern, European societies, the state tries hard to improve to position of the printed media with various incentives, including tax deductions, because they are considered a vital element of political culture of a nation, as well as a tool in combating illiteracy, so that it is our sincere hope that you and the Serbian Government do not intend to persecute the printed media.

We understand fully that this is not a time for selective tax policies, which is why we are not complaining about the fact that the tax rate is the same for newspapers and beer, nor about the fact that in the printed media market, publishers of pornographic materials are taxed the same way as those who publish cultural publications.  But we are complaining against this regulation which forces us to pay tax on income which we did not make.

The willingness of a government to wage reformist policies is often reflected better in small things than in large ones.  I never thought that I would be forced to write that the paper I represent supports the same policies as those of the government, but believe me that we are just as interested in reforms as you and that we see in them a chance for prospering ourselves.

Mr. Djelic, you don't appear like a man who is ready to throw out the baby with the bathwater, nor do you look like someone who is incapable of understanding that with a regulation like this you are denying us our basic right of taking on risks in doing business, because returned copies are always costly as it is, let alone when you tax them additionally.

I do not wish to invoke pathos, but if we managed to survive the last regime, we will no doubt manage to survive this one.  However it is very important, both for you and for us to demonstrate understanding in this sensitive period of transition, and for you not to terrorize us with expensive and misdirected demands.

You can only imagine how difficult it is to try to sell papers to a nation which does not have bread to eat, so that we urge you not to permit a callous regulation to make our work more difficult than it already is.

As a descent man, I believe that you will respond to this letter on a subject which poses significant problems to all publishers, just as I believe that as a good finance minister you will halt the enforcement of this regulation.

Sincerely,

Dragoljub Zarkovic
Editor in Chief
VREME Weekly Magazine