(Podgorica, 11 July 2013) – Today MANS submitted charges to the Administrative Court to annul the payment of a €20 fine submitted to MANS activists by Parking Service officials for the failure to pay an illegal and unconstitutional tax for the use of a parking spot, with the intention of demonstrating through legal methods that the payment of such ‘fines’ is totally illegally and that for years the Parking Service has been fooling citizens.
The Parking Service, which was illegally and unconstitutionally granted the jurisdiction to charge for parking and to determine prices, has went to greater lengths to violate the rights of citizens with a €20 paid card that punishes citizens.
There is no basis for the Parking Service to charge a paid card since this decision wasn’t made in accordance with the Decision on Local Communal Taxes. The ‘Decision’ can introduce local communal taxes, establish their amount as well as the methods and deadlines for payment, in addition to the carrying out of the payment and oversight of local communal tax payments.
The local tariff for parking should also be established by means of this ‘Decision,’ although this hasn’t been the case in Podgorica. That is, the ‘Decision’ only contains tariffs for the use of parking spots in taxi zones. That is, a tax for using parking space is only legally sanctioned in taxi zones, while citizens do not use such zones nor are their cars taxis.
Furthermore, the relevant laws establish that the payments of these taxes are to be carried out by the relevant institutions of local government. The Parking Service isn’t an institution of the local government responsible for collecting municipal revenues and lacks the jurisdiction to charge citizens with local taxes. Thus, an economic society was unconstitutionally given the right to introduce a tax that wasn’t introduced by a declaration of the local government, as well as to arbitrarily determine the amount and to collect fees. Local communal taxes, as already noted, can only be introduced by institutions of local self-government.
The Parking Service’s illegally introduced tax is also being illegally implemented through the paid card system, not giving citizens the right to participate in the initiative, the right to appeal and all other rights that a party should have in relation to fees in accordance with the law. Even if the Parking Service had the right to do so, it should have done so in a manner that respects the rights available to citizens under the Constitution and the law.
In the end, the Parking Service threatens forceful payments, even though citizens lack the fundamental right to participate with their full rights.
We expect the Administrative Court will try to protect the rights of citizens since the local self-administration isnt doing so. Citizens aren’t empowered to seek protection from the Parking Service, which means the the Administrative Court should real on MANS’ initiative and annul the clearly illegal act that denies citizens’ rights.
