RSD 1.1 bln for commodity reserves in 2015

BELGRADE - A total of RSD 1.130 billion will be set aside for commodity reserves in 2015, with almost half of the sum intended for procurement of basic food supplies, including maize, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Rasim Ljajic, who is also minister of trade, tourism and telecommunications, said on Monday.

Ljajic explained that RSD 300 million will be set aside for fuels, with RSD 350 million to be earmarked for emergency equipment.

No wheat purchases are planned for 2015 because stockpiles currently amount to around 200,000 tons, which is sufficient for two months of consumption in entire Serbia, the minister noted.

The government will soon decide on an intervention from the commodity reserves with at least 30,000 tons of wheat to stabilise the market and prices, he said.

Speaking about cost cuts, Ljajic said that control of warehouse keepers will be stepped up to prevent theft of grain and maize from commodity reserves, which he said has been the most lucrative business for many years.

He said that last year, when 77 authorised warehouse keepers were subjected to scrutiny, 18 of them turned out to have deficits totalling 50,000 tons of wheat and 30,000 tons of maize.

Based on criminal charges filed at the time, police on Sunday took to the Prosecutor's Office for Organised Crime four people suspected of having caused around RSD 270 million worth of losses to the Directorate for Commodity Reserves, he said.

By the end of the year, a tender for warehouse keepers - the first-ever launched pursuant to the law on public procurements - will be complete, the minister said, adding that the implementation of the law includes control of current warehouse keepers.

To permanently prevent...