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The future of Air Serbia is still uncertain. The Fiscal Council warned at the Assembly Finance Committee session that the company’s loans and losses are increasing. His estimates are that the airline will receive a total of 200 million euros from the state for this year, but also in 2021. However, the Minister of Finance, Sinisa Mali, claims that the Fiscal Council is lying. It says that Air Serbia does not represent a financial risk for citizens, because it operates in the black.
The budget proposal for next year was not the only subject of the parliamentary Finance Committee. Representatives of the Fiscal Council also took the opportunity to comment on Air Serbia’s business. They caution that their calculation shows that the airline has been in heavy losses and borrowed since 2015.
“To cover the operating deficit, Air Serbia borrowed € 50 million from Etihad Partners in September and the next € 50 million in June next year, which is € 100 million and has € 20 million from Komercijalna Banka. that is what we know, and that the borrowing was often carried out at high interest rates of seven percent, “said the chairman of the Fiscal Council, Pavle Petrović.
And as experts warn of a growing deficit in Air Serbia’s coffers, a controversy has begun in the public: what are the chances that the national airline will survive? From the Fiscal Council, they have no dilemma. They say that the debts will be largely covered by the State and that restructuring is the best solution.
Looking at Air Serbia’s balances, the budget rebalancing and the proposal for this budget, we have reached an amount of 200 million euros, but that must be said clearly and out loud to the deputies and the public, that is, to the taxpayers , this business model must be stopped. because the state cannot take over and pay the debts ”, believes Pavle Petrović.
However, Finance Minister Siniša Mali claims that the state has not helped Air Serbia since 2016 because it is prohibited. He values the allegations of the representative of the Fiscal Council as lump sums and says there is no reason to worry when it comes to the business of the national airline.
And curiously, professor, in 2018, the audit report that was sent to the European Commission confirms that at an operational level, without the subsidies that you, I don’t know how you are doing and with nothing, Air Serbia is positive, because that was a condition to restructure Air Serbia. Serbia, that was the reason why we entered this whole process, in 2019 it is interesting, it is also positive at the level of commercial results, “explains Finance Minister Siniša Mali.
Although the coronavirus pandemic is known to have pushed many airlines around the world into a bad financial situation, Faculty of Economics professor Ljubodrag Savić says this is not an alibi for the difficult situation at Air Serbia.
“I’m afraid that without that, Air Serbia has serious problems and that the state should think carefully about what to do next and make a decision that should change the situation around Air Serbia’s business, which seems to me at the moment.” “Even in the absence of the necessary information, I believe that this situation, in which the state injects more and more money into Air Serbia every year so that it can function, is unsustainable,” Savic said.
To find salvation, the national airline offered severance pay to its employees in November, with some media writing that it plans to lay off at least 300 workers. Professor Ljubodrag Savić also points out that due to the bad financial situation, it might be better for Air Serbia to declare bankruptcy.
Because, as he himself says, his business does not justify the citizens’ money, which is invested in the company.
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