Tourist arrangments abroad, in the future will be payed by applying official middle exchange rate of the dinar

The official middle exchange rate of the dinar will be applied in the future when dealing with pricing and billing of tourist packages abroad. This is prescribed by the new Law on Trade, which was adopted by the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia. This solution was accepted during the drafting of the bill, and at the proposal of the National Bank of Serbia.

In this way, the long-standing issue of collecting tourist arrangements by using ask rate of commercial banks or effective foreign currency was resolved. The decision from the new Law on Trade in the Prices of Tourist Arrangements becomes completely comparable and predictable because it will not depend on the daily sales rates determined by the banks.

With this solution, users of tourist agency services will have the opportunity to plan with great certainty the amount of expenses in the family budget for payment of tourist arrangements that are being made abroad, since the price of such arrangement will be presented and collected using the official middle exchange rate of the dinar, which, thanks to the efforts and activities of the National Bank of Serbia, for several years is stable and without major oscillations.

In addition, travel agencies, who until now have calculated and charged travel arrangements for the users of their services using the selling rate of the bank with which they have opened an account, although in practice they bought foreign currency at more favorable rates, will no longer be able to earn additional earnings on the basis of exchange rates difference, and at the expense of clients.

We state that according to the current regulations, but also according to the new law, traders are obliged to show prices in the dinar as a rule, while only exceptionally they can display the price in foreign currency, as is the case in the trade in services in tourism that are in direct relation with foreign countries. However, in this case, according to the new law, the trader must indicate that in the calculation and charging of the price the official middle exchange rate of the dinar is used.

The new Law on Trade was published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia No. 52/2019 and shall enter into force on the eighth day from the day of its publication on 30 July 2019.

Source www.nbs.rs