Minister of Telecommunications and Information Society Jasna Matic said that the 10% tax on mobile lines will be abolished this year if the planned stabilisation of the budget takes place.

Opening the Information Day dedicated to the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT SPS), Matic said that the latest indicators of economic growth are better than expected.

She said that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) envisages growth of the Serbian gross domestic product by 2.5%, which implies that the budget will be in a good state and the government will be able to abolish the tax on mobile lines.

She explained that small and medium-sized domestic enterprises could apply for financial support from the ICT PSP by June.

This Programme is one of three parts of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) that is planned for small and medium-sized enterprises, but scientific institutions and faculties can also apply for the funds.

In this year, when the crisis is still present, these funds will be of great help for IT companies because it will help them keep their staff, maintain their high level of business operations and develop new products, with all the costs being covered by someone else, Matic said.

Matic said that domestic companies can make consortiums with European firms and apply for funds from the Programme’s budget, which totals €750 million and which lasts until 2013.

A consortium can include between four and seven companies whose projects are being 80% covered with non-repayable funds from the Programme, which means that a company can finance even the most expensive part of its activity – development of new products without direct costs.

She said that each consortium can be granted up to several million euros separately, depending on the volume and complexity of the project.

This Ministry, which is a coordinator in this part of the project, will hold sessions similar to this one in order to inform companies how to apply for this Programme, Matic said.

Speaking about the reduction of number of employees in the Ministry, Matic said that nine working places should be abolished. She said that the Ministry submitted the job systematisation plan to the Secretariat-General and the government will most probably adopt this plan at one of its upcoming sessions