Thursday, February 05, 2009

Wages long overdue, banks waive late payment fees

Commercial banks in Macedonia will earn millions of denars from daily interest charge on late payment amid imbroglio caused by Public Revenue Office's master software collapse while computing the gross wages.

About 600.000 working people in Macedonia owed averagely 1.788 euros to banks till November 2008. Simple calculation shows that banks will earn at least 10.000 euros per day through charging daily interest on late payment of installments provided that the fixed penalty for late payment was set at 1 denar a day, Nova Makedonija daily said.

Banks charge 19.5% interest rate on late payment on annual basis.

In the headline "Banks don't care about UJP problem", the local daily Utrinski Vesnik says "the citizens will pay high price for state's error prompted by collapse of the software of Public Revenue Office (UJP)". The working people cannot collect their monthly wage due to software collapse.

Who will pay the price given the fact that bankers don't care whether the citizens receive their wages in due time. Moreover, banks don't care about the reason why the citizens have been put in such a situation although some companies have no financial worries, Utrinski Vesnik said.

Editorial commentary in Dnevnik daily raises the issue of accountability. The relevant authorities should be held accountable for the collapse of the so-called gross wage concept. In normal countries, such omissions result in resignations by those responsible.

Those who ignore the responsibility probably want to confirm that our country is not among normal countries, Dnevnik daily said.

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