From the 46th session of the Government: The citizens will be able to decide on their own will to donate the return from “My DVD” to the COVID-19 Budget; facilitated access of households at risk to the social assistance right

At today’s 46th Session, the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia adopted a Decree for application of the Law on Value Added Tax for the duration of the state of emergency.

This Decree extends the deadline for submitting the DVD-04 form and the payment of DVD tax for the period from 1 February 2020 – 29 February 2020, until 30 April 2020.
This Decree provides for extension of the deadline for submitting the DVD-04 form and the payment of the DVD tax for the period from 1 March – 31 March 2020 and for the period from 1 January 2020 – 31 March 2020, until 30 April 2020.

The Decree extends the deadline for submitting the DVD-4 form and payment of the DVD tax for the period from 1 April 2020 – 30 April 2020, until 31 May 2020.

The Government also adopted the Decree for implementing the Law part of the Value Added Tax return for natural persons for the period of the state of emergency, which provides for the possibility to donate the return of the DVD return tax, which the natural person is entitled to with ‘My DVD’ in the Budget of the Republic of North Macedonia for the support of the effort to handle the impact caused by the Corona virus. 

The natural persons, who use the application software for registering data of their fiscal accounts prepared in a mobile version, will have the possibility to choose to donate their tax return amount to the budget.
For the tax return amount of the first quarter of this year, the citizens will have the option to donate part of the DVD tax which they are entitled to until 5 May 2020.

The Government adopted a decision today to allow export by economic operators and producers from the Republic of North Macedonia of disinfectants: soaps with or without surface active disinfectants, substances (for washing, laundry, cleaning and gels) based on surface active agents, toilette sanitaria with disinfectant substances, as well as not denatured ethyl alcohol containing 80% alcohol. When exporting these goods, the Customs Declaration must be accompanied with a Statement of the exporter that a certain percent of these substances remain as obligatory reserve for the domestic market needs. 

The Government also adopted an amendment to the Decree with force of law on Restricting the Payment of taxes and salary contributions for the public sectors employees during the state of emergency which provides that the restrictions refer to April and May. In Article 2, a new paragraph is added which reads that the public sector employees who receive their salary according to the law and the collective agreements, the right to excess on salary based on their working history, excess on salary due to night work, excess on salary for temporary disability to work due to illness or injury, excess on salary for annual vacation leave, excess on salary for working on state holiday and excess on salary for a law defined non-working day, separate life from family (except for the parliament representatives), extra income in case of death of the worker or member of their family and retirement severance  shall also be paid during the state of emergency for the months of April and May.

In Article 3 of this Decree, for the categories which are exempt from this Decree, the following entities are added: the high education institutions and inspectors employed in the National Sanitary and Health Inspectorate, the National Market Inspectorate, the National Labor Inspectorate, the National Transport Inspectorate, the Agency for Medicines and Medical Substances and the Agency for Food and Veterinary.

The Government reviewed and adopted the Information on Internet Games of Chance and Entertainment Games during the state of emergency and adopted a Decree with force of law on implementing the Law on Games of Chance Decree and Entertainment Games during the state of emergency. This Decree provides for the possibility to charge income to the Budget which, until the state of emergency measures for preventing the spread of Corona virus, were guaranteed by the gambling houses, slot machine clubs and casinos and which ceased to be charged due to the fact that on 15 March 2020 the providers of these services closed their payment and business offices where they performed the games of chance. 

This Decree enables the economic operators who organize games of chance to continue their business on-line (via the Internet) which provided for the conditions to preserve 7,500 jobs in this business.

The Government of the Republic of North Macedonia reviewed and adopted the Information with a proposal for harmonizing the Temporary Framework of the European Commission on measures for state assistance to support the economy during the COVID-19 crisis. 

In this session, the Government adopted the amendments to the Decree with force of law on the implementation of the Law on Social Protection during the state of emergency. This Decree provides for the facilitation of access for the socially unsecured households to the right of guaranteed minimum assistance and enables the use of a cash benefit to cover part of the costs for the household energy consumption during the months of April to September 2020.

The benefit for disability and assistance/care for another person is extended in the same manner based on the finding and opinion of the relevant committee during the state of emergency and in an additional period of two months following the end of the state of emergency. 

Regarding the new periods for restricted movement, the Government agreed on changes for the pet owners (dog). From Monday until Friday the pet owners are allowed to take their dogs out for a walk during the day prior to the beginning of the curfew, i.e. until 19:00.

On Saturday the owners and their pets are allowed a 30-minute walk in the evening hours, i.e. from 20:00 until 20:30, and on Sunday morning from 8:00 until 8:30, Sunday afternoon from 15:00 until 15:30 and Sunday evening from 20:00 until 20:30. 
As was the case so far, this movement is allowed within the distance of 100 meters from the owner’s home with mandatory preserving the regulated distances from other persons and avoiding grouping.