Do you buy coffee, sweets and household chemicals at market stalls? Revealed the reason why it’s dangerous

Coffee and other consumer goods, chocolate, clothing, household appliances, chemicals, cosmetics and similar products should not be sold in markets without issuing invoices and paying taxes, and these goods arrive at the stalls due to the inadequate application of regulations, they say in NALED. .

Selling these products to some 410 markets in Serbia without issuing invoices and paying taxes is a major source of underground economy and unfair competition for the legal economy.

This is one of the main conclusions of the new analysis by NALED and GIZ, which deals with the sale in the market of so-called non-proprietary products, that is, items that the merchant does not produce, but only resells, and many times it is of goods acquired through smuggling.

Do you buy these foods at the market or in the store?

There are around 70,000 points of sale in the markets, of which 68 percent are stalls, where the majority are agricultural producers and artisans, that is, those who, as sellers of their own products, can operate at a flat rate and without a cash register. fiscal.

NALED states that there are two typical examples of technology, chemistry, confectionery and other products that hit the counters.

President of the NALED Alliance for Fair Competition and Director of Corporate Affairs, Philip Morris Services, Ivan Miletić, explains that he is the first to sell vendors in the state of flat-rate entrepreneurs, and the inspections do not sanction this as a illegal activity.

Another example, he says, is unregistered traders who go to the counter “sublet” to sellers who meet the conditions to work in the market.

The previous inspection, as recorded in the NALED bulletin, showed that merchants of non-own goods many times, contrary to the regulations, do not declare prices, do not have a statement or proof of acquisition of goods, although it is their obligation, therefore its quality is unknown. safety and endangering customers.

By not issuing invoices, they also violate the Consumer Protection Law, because they do not give them the opportunity to advertise the product, and a similar practice occurs with duly registered merchants in the markets that avoid registering the invoicing through the cash register to not see how much billing.

In NALED’s survey on attitudes about the shadow economy, citizens indicated that, excluding fresh food, they mainly buy clothes (30 percent of responses), cosmetics and household chemicals (27 percent), sweets (22 percent). cent), coffee (15). percent), electrical materials and tools, cigarettes …

The problem, it is claimed, is insufficient supervision of the sale of non-proprietary products.

Market administrations, NALED notes, generally control only whether the counter tenant has a lease, while they have no basis or mechanism to confiscate the goods and expel the merchant from the market.

First of all, NALED recommends the harmonization and specification of all regulations governing sales in the market, so that only sellers of agricultural products in the markets have the right to sell without issuing tax invoices.

They also suggest the possibility of introducing a special tax regime for sellers of non-proprietary products that takes into account their low income and allows them to work legally.

It is also recommended to better coordinate the supervision of the inspections and strengthen the advisory supervision, but also to work on the awareness of consumers that they have the right to request an invoice for all purchases in the market.

One of the good mechanisms, they believe, could be the placing of signs at the entrances of the markets, informing citizens that the products can be sold at the counters, and that only in the stores within the market.