National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia / Activities / Activity details
Friday, 15 November 2024
Ninth Sitting of the Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Committee
At the sitting held on 15 November 2024, the members of the Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Committee considered the Republic of Serbia 2025 Budget Bill, Section 24 – Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, submitted by the Government.
The Bill i.e. Section 24, was presented by Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Dr Aleksandar Martinovic, as representative of the submitter, who, before presenting next year’s budget, spoke of the parameters of the 2024 budget. He said that in 2024, 18 public calls were made for all types of measures, from direct payments, through rural development measures, to credit support for agricultural producers. Also, the payment of an additional 10,000.00 RSD per hectare has begun, in accordance with the agreement reached with the farmers' associations, and 202,000 decisions for the payment of these additional funds have been issued so far, said Martinovic. He added that the work of the agricultural inspection has been intensified due to instances of land abuse and fictitious agricultural farms, while 99% of the requests per report, in the amount of over 73 billion RSD, have been realised. According to the Minister, the agriculture budget for 2025 is a record with 111.5 billion RSD for incentives, which shows the commitment to agriculture and the aspiration to restore food sovereignty, that is, independence from imports and production sufficient for domestic needs and for export as well as for the restoration of domestic livestock numbers. The Minister added that IPARD 2 and IPARD 3 European funds will be available to producers. The representative of the Ministry of Finance Budget Sector, Marija Filipovic, presented the total revenues and expenditures in the 2025 budget, noting that the funds intended for subsidies will amount to 224.04 billion RSD, 51.9% of which are agricultural subsidies.
Following a comprehensive discussion, the Committee members adopted, by majority vote, the Republic of Serbia 2025 Budget Bill, Section 24 – Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management.
The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairman Marijan Risticevic, and attended by the following Subcommittee members and deputy members: Veroljub Matic, Zoran Sandic, Milos Gnjidic, Dragan Jovanovic, Dejan Bulatovic, Slobodan Nikolic, Dusan Nikezic, Jozsef Tobias, Slobodan Ilic, Dragan Jonic, Ivana Stamatovic, Dijana Radovic and Miroslav Aleksic.