Starting in January next year, Serbia will introduce a new tax aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The tax will not apply to all citizens but only to specific categories of businesses.
The obligation to pay this tax will fall exclusively on legal entities and entrepreneurs whose operations directly contribute to greenhouse gas emissions or who import products with high carbon intensity.
The new greenhouse gas emission tax will primarily apply to companies that hold emission permits and operate in high-emission sectors such as the production of fertilizers and nitrogen compounds, cement, raw iron, steel, ferroalloys, aluminum, and electricity generation. These companies will pay the tax only on “excess emissions” — the amount exceeding the technologically justified limit set for their industry, Nova.rs reported.
The tax will also apply to importers bringing in more than five tons of such goods per year. It will be calculated based on emissions generated during production in the product’s country of origin, adjusted for reference values.
In other words, the new tax will not affect citizens, small businesses, or companies from low-emission sectors. It will target industrial polluters and large importers of carbon-intensive goods.
Beginning in 2026, Serbia plans to adopt two new legal frameworks — one introducing a greenhouse gas emission tax and another imposing a levy on imports of carbon-intensive products.
The move has a dual purpose: to encourage domestic industries to reduce emissions and to align Serbia’s regulations with the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which will take effect on January 1, 2026, for goods entering the EU market.
