The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection emphasized it was necessary to amend without delay certain provisions of the Bylaw on Tax Identification Number, which stipulate that tax identification number of a natural person –taxpayer is his/her unique personal identification number, and requested from the Ministry to do so.

On the basis of citizens' reports, the Commissioner found that when complying with the above norms of the Bylaw and Articles 36, paragraph 10 of the Law on Tax Procedure and Tax Administration, which imply publishing of certain data on the Internet, local tax administration authorities posted and are posting many unique personal identification numbers on their official websites.

As an illustration, a document of 1,027 pages, of which each contains about 50 unique personal identification numbers, has been published on the official Internet presentation of the Public Revenues Administration of the city of Belgrade alone.

The unique personal identification number (JMBG) is an individual and unique designation of citizens' identification data and as such is very convenient for searches in personal databases and also very useful for various forms of abuse. The possibilities for abuse are multiplied by the nature of the Internet as a medium, the unlimited possibilities to download and copy published data and the fact that the law does not specify how long the data can remain posted on official presentations of tax authorities.

Entering the unique personal identification number in various online applications (e.g. electoral register) enables searches of the Internet presentations of local self-governments and public authorities, which can disclose other personal data of unique personal identification number/TIN holders as the result of searches, such as name and surname, address, polling place. Thus, it seems that numerous personal data are available to a wide circle of persons without purpose or justification.

Such data processing, based on secondary legislation instead on the law, is contrary to the provision of Article 42 of the Constitution which stipulates that "processing of personal data is regulated by the law".

In addition, such data processing is not performed for the intended purpose, since its purpose can easily be achieved without invasion of privacy and is also unnecessarily risky from the aspect of potential abuse.

Taking all this into account, the Commissioner requested from the Ministry of Finance to amend the Bylaw on Tax Identification Number.