Committee Chairman Marijan Risticevic said that the Committee had received a number of complaints from agricultural producers about delays in the payment of agricultural incentives. State Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Velimir Stanojevic provided a breakdown of public calls for agricultural incentives, procurement of new machines and cattle, pointing out that though the incentive funds had been increased, the number of requests outstrips the budget allocation. He also said that because of incentive payments carried over from last year it would be necessary to allocate an additional budget to pay out this year’s incentives.

Bojan Zivkovic, Assistant Head of the Directorate for Agrarian Payments, presented the payments realized this and the previous year. He said that in 2017 the Directorate for Agrarian Payments had paid 12 billion RSD for 54,000 requests submitted and 15 billion RSD for 69,000 requests submitted this year. Zivkovic said that according to estimates the payment of this year’s incentives will require additional five billion RSD due to the payments carried over from the previous year.

Following a debate, the Committee adopted a conclusion on this item on the agenda.

The Committee members went on to discuss possible amendments to the law regulating agricultural land with the representative of the Directorate for Agricultural Land Aleksandra Miceta. Committee Chairman Marijan Risticevic said it is vital that the Ministry’s Working Group set up to draft the amendments keep the Committee duly informed about its progress so that the Committee’s suggestions could be taken into consideration in the course of the drafting process.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairman Marijan Risticevic and attended by the following Committee members and deputy members: Dragan Savkic, Prof. Dr Miladin Sevarlic, Milija Miletic, Mladen Lukic, Ognjen Pantovic, Zarko Bogatinovic, Tijana Davidovac and Radovan Jancic.