Serbia's 6,000 Dinar Aid Deadline Ends Tomorrow at Midnight

The deadline to apply for the one-time 6,000 dinar payment closes tomorrow, September 21, at midnight. As of September 20, 1,656,549 adult citizens had applied, Finance Minister Sinisa Mali announced. Mali, who also serves as First Deputy Prime Minister in Serbia’s caretaker government, first told the public that more than 1.5 million citizens had applied before giving the exact figure in the same statement.

Applications can only be submitted electronically, through the Treasury Administration portal at idp.trezor.gov.rs. According to Mali, the portal has also logged 2,728,000 inquiries from citizens checking whether they hold rights in the Share Fund.

“So far, 1,656,549 citizens have applied for this payment, and the Treasury Administration portal has recorded 2,728,000 inquiries from people checking whether they are shareholders in the Share Fund,” Mali said, adding that the application process is running on schedule and that the portal is working well.

Who Gets the Money Automatically, and Who Must Apply?

The electronic application is meant for adult citizens who are not already rights holders under the Law on the Right to Free Shares, according to Euronews, which cited the Finance Ministry’s statement. Rights holders under that law, along with pensioners and recipients of cash social assistance, receive the payment automatically and do not need to file an application.

Bizportal notes that citizens should also check on their own whether they are already registered in the Share Fund. Mali has previously explained that those already registered do not need to apply again, while those who are not registered but meet the other conditions need to do so before the deadline passes.

For applicants who do not already have an account there, the portal automatically opens one at Postal Savings Bank, free of charge, with no fees for opening, maintaining or withdrawing funds from it.

Payment Order From September 22 to 25

Payouts begin on Tuesday, September 22, the day after the application deadline, and continue through Friday, September 25. The order follows specific groups of recipients.

“Payments to citizens will begin as early as Tuesday, September 22, and will run through Friday, September 25. On Tuesday, payments will go out to citizens receiving money from the Share Fund, as well as to pensioners and recipients of cash social assistance. For citizens who applied for the 6,000 dinars, payments will start on Wednesday, September 23,” Mali said.

Interest in the program has been high from day one, though sources differ on the exact figures. Bizportal reports that applications passed 800,000 on the first day alone, while earlier figures put the count at about 83,000 between midnight and 8 a.m. on that first day. Applications opened on September 7 and ran for two weeks.

Support Package Continues Ahead of Elections

The 6,000 dinar payment is part of a broader support package that the Finance Ministry says is worth almost one billion euros in total, including earlier one-time payments, cheaper medicine, vouchers for pensioners and an extension of the regulation protecting energy-vulnerable customers. Bizportal puts the total budget for all forms of assistance at 71 billion dinars, with most of that coming from the Share Fund and about 18 billion dinars from the state budget.

Mali recalled that on September 14 the government paid out roughly 50 billion dinars (about 400 million euros) in one-time aid to around two million citizens: depending on pension size, pensioners received 35,000, 27,500 or 20,000 dinars, socially vulnerable citizens received 25,000 dinars, and war veterans received 10,000 dinars each. Srpske Novine reported on September 18 on three September payout dates, the child allowance payment and the announcement of this 6,000 dinar measure itself. Some critics have described the measure as an attempt to buy voters ahead of elections.