Due to the blockade of the Assembly, the tobacco growers may be left without subsidies
The blockade of the Parliament is a serious problem for the payment of subsidies to farmers, say the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy. According to them, the changes in the Law on Agriculture and Rural Development are crucial because every year in April a technical change is made which is not made now. Hence, they point out that the Paying Agency has all the money for the tobacco growers even before the supplementary budget, the decisions can be signed in one day, but the blockade is the brake in the Parliament.
The director of the Agency for Financial Support in Agriculture and Rural Development, Nikica Bachovski, said that the reason for non-payment of tobacco subsidies is the legal provision for debts to the PRO, adopted in 2015 by the current opposition, which in the same year passed a decision on postponement of this provision.
- Until 2015, in the Law on Agriculture and Rural Development, the only points where control is made whether the farmer owes or not whether there is a debt for land, water and grazing. Today's opposition, which blocked the law in 2015, says that farmers should be checked if they have debts to the PRO. In the same year when they saw that it did not work, the systems could not be connected, the PRO had a different way of detecting and monitoring the debts, they brought a decision where that provision for the PRO is postponed, ie it is called postponed application for next year, he said. the director Bachovski.
According to director Bachovski, this practice has been applied from 2015 to 2021 without any problem.
- Every year that provision was postponed and in that way the tobacco growers do not have a blockade in the payment of subsidies. This is the first year since 2015 where they decide to block it. That delayed application was given by the Ministry two or three months ago and it stands that way. It is not true that subsidies are not paid because there is no money. All programs are publicly available. "We are ready when the president signs the decree to pay the subsidies to 17-18.000 tobacco growers with a sum of 1.300.000 denars," Bachovski said.
