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Technical inspection before first registration in Serbia: price and rules

Before an imported car is registered in Serbia, it goes through the regular annual technical inspection at any station MUP has authorised, where you also show the certificate issued by the Road Traffic Safety Agency (ABS). The Government sets the price for every passenger car at 3,070 to 6,020 RSD, the exhaust check included, and a station may not charge outside that range. For a roadworthy car you get the registracioni list, which MUP accepts for 30 days.

What the inspection costs

The regular annual inspection of a passenger car costs at least 3,070 RSD and at most 6,020 RSD (Government decision, Službeni glasnik RS 13/2022, in force from 12 February 2022 and not amended since). The range is the same for every passenger car, whatever its engine size, fuel or drive, and a station may not charge less or more (Road Traffic Safety Law, article 264).

The price covers the whole inspection, the exhaust check included, so Serbia has no separate eco test. The decision says nothing about VAT: MUP said in February 2022, as RTS reported, that the range includes VAT, but we did not find the statement on MUP's own website.

In Belgrade, the PMV Trajković station in Novi Beograd charges 6,000 RSD (price list, January 2026), and Auto servis Macura wrote in September 2025 that the inspection of a passenger car usually costs about 6,000 RSD. In the calculator the inspection is entered in euros and starts at €50, which is 5,870 RSD at the default rate of 117.4 dinars to the euro, within the range; if you know your station's price, enter that instead.

Which inspection, when and where

An imported car goes through the regular annual technical inspection before it is entered in the unified vehicle register, at most 30 days before you file the registration request (Road Traffic Safety Law, article 264). After that, a privately used car has one regular inspection a year, whatever its age.

Any station MUP has authorised will do, anywhere in Serbia: only registration itself depends on where you live. MUP's list of 10 July 2026 has 1,516 stations, almost all of which inspect passenger cars. The law requires no booking: a station must be able to inspect every vehicle it is authorised for throughout its posted working hours, at least eight hours each working day (article 261), though some also take bookings.

What to bring, and how to get the car there

At the station you show:

  • your ID card;
  • the ABS test certificate (uverenje o ispitivanju), which a car put into traffic in Serbia for the first time must have (technical inspection rulebook, article 29); the homologation guide explains how to get it;
  • for a car with an LPG or CNG system, a certificate of that system's periodic inspection or the certificate of conformity (CoC); whether a German gas-system certificate is accepted was not confirmed.

The rulebook names only Serbian registration documents, so it does not set out what replaces them before the first registration; bring the foreign registration document, the JCI and the invoice or purchase contract, and ask the station what it needs. The insurance policy is not needed for the inspection; MUP asks for it at registration.

The car must be clean, drivable and unloaded, or it is not inspected. You may drive it there on the export plates within 5 days of entering Serbia, or on PROBA plates, which for a drive to the inspection are issued without proof of roadworthiness (see the registration guide).

What is checked, and how long it takes

The inspection starts with identification: the VIN, the engine number and the car's data are compared with the documents and the database. It then covers 16 groups of devices, from the steering, brakes and lights to the exhaust, suspension, engine and equipment (technical inspection rulebook, article 34). The inspectors measure and examine without major dismantling, and they finish the inspection even when they find a defect.

The inspection stops if the VIN or the engine number is missing, damaged or on a replaced part, or if the car's data are doubtful and not in the database, or contradict it; the station's report then says that ABS or a body it names must establish the correct data. If the engine number cannot be read without major dismantling, the inspection waits for a confirmation from the maker, its representative or an authorised service centre.

Two inspectors examine a car for at least 25 minutes (articles 36 and 38), and one of them drives it from the waiting area to where you collect it. You may not stay on the inspection line, but every station has a room from which you can watch the whole inspection, directly or on video.

Exhaust gases and OBD

The exhaust check is part of every inspection: an analyser measures a petrol engine's exhaust and a smoke meter a diesel's, in both cases on a fully warmed-up engine, and a reader plugged into the OBD port checks the warning system for faults in the emission controls. Only petrol cars made before 2001 and diesel cars made before 2004 skip the OBD check (technical inspection rulebook, articles 21 and 22). Since July 2021 a car with bad exhaust results fails the inspection.

As a rule, a car that runs on petrol and on gas must meet the limits on each fuel. A car built with a catalytic converter may not be used without it: the grace period until 5 July 2027 covers only cars first registered in Serbia by 5 July 2021, not an import registered now (rulebook on vehicle categories and technical conditions, articles 81 and 82). The rules do not mention a diesel particulate filter, so they do not say how a car without one is judged.

Electric cars and hybrids

They go through the same inspection at the same price. A hybrid's combustion engine has its exhaust measured and is checked through OBD like any other. Exhaust limits are set only for combustion engines, so on a fully electric car there is nothing to measure; we have not checked how stations handle this in practice. The Serbian rules have no separate item for a traction battery or a high-voltage drive: the electrical checks (the battery, the wiring insulation and the warning devices) are visual.

The registracioni list and its 30 days

For a roadworthy car you get the registracioni list, the A4 form on which the registration request is filed. The station fills in and stamps its first page, with the car's data and the inspection result; MUP prints the second page, with your request and its decision, when it decides on the request (registration rulebook, article 5). The inspection record (zapisnik) stays with the station.

MUP accepts the registracioni list only if it is no more than 30 days old, so register within that time, or the inspection has to be done again. If the inspection is done as part of the vehicle test for the ABS certificate, the list notes that it is valid together with the test certificate (technical inspection rulebook, article 29).

If the car fails

For a car that fails, you get an Izveštaj o utvrđenom stanju vozila (a report on the car's condition). Once the defects are fixed, the same company that did the inspection re-checks only the failed items, unless the inspectors suspect that something else has changed. The re-check must be done within seven working days of the first inspection; after that, the whole inspection is repeated (technical inspection rulebook, article 33). The rulebook does not say whether the re-check is paid: PMV Trajković, for one, does not charge for it within 7 days, so ask your station.

Common mistakes

  • "The inspection costs 2,800 RSD" or "its price is set by the market". The Government sets 3,070 to 6,020 RSD for a passenger car.
  • "The price depends on engine size, and for an electric car it is 4,000 to 5,000 RSD." The same range covers every passenger car, whatever its engine or drive.
  • "On a test ground the inspection may cost 2,000 RSD more." That surcharge is only for buses, trucks and trailers over 3.5 t and tourist trains, not for a passenger car.
  • "Older cars are inspected every six months." A private car is inspected once a year at any age; six-monthly inspections are for certain listed vehicles, such as buses, hire cars and driving-school vehicles.
  • "A car's inspection takes at least 35 minutes." The minimum for a car has been 25 minutes since the 2022 amendment; before that it was 30, or 35 on a dead-end inspection line.
  • "You have seven days to fix the fault, and the re-check is free." The limit is seven working days, and the re-check is done by the same company; no rule makes it free.
  • "From 1 January 2027 a car can be registered only with a record in the central system (CISTEP)." No official text sets that date: ABS has announced only a voluntary trial from 15 June to 15 December 2026, and gives no date from which stations must use the system, saying only that it will be once ABS provides the software.

This step of the import

Work out the whole cost

Sources

The official laws, decisions and pages this guide rests on, read on 23/09/2026. Rules and amounts change, so check the ones that matter to you before you buy.