Deputy Prime Minister Damir Polancec said the government and INA trade unions had agreed that seven percent of the company's stocks be sold six months after the initial bid for INA shares, instead of 30 days, as originally agreed.
He said the government expected the initial public bidding to start in late October or early November.
Opposition deputies criticised the government for an irresponsible approach to INA's privatisation, and for announcing and then postponing the sale of stocks to INA employees without even establishing the true value of the stocks.
Tonci Tadic of the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) called on the government to state the value of INA and its shares and to say whether it planned to sell the majority stock to Hungary's MOL. He also wondered what would happen with the stocks that were originally promised to Croatian Homeland War soldiers.
Mato Arlovic of the Social Democrats (SDP) believes that the decision on privatising INA should not be carried out in the election year.
Damir Kajin of the Istrian Democratic Party too asked the government to go public with the true value of the company and its stocks.
Polancec said the market would give the best assessment of the value of INA's stocks, after they were placed on stock markets. Polancec said legal experts would deal with this issue. He stressed INA did not keep records of its former employees, which additionally aggravated the situation. Elaborating the government's proposal to enable INA employees to purchase the company's stocks six months after the initial bid, Polancec said the possibility to purchase the stocks only 30 days after the initial bid would lower the price of stocks. "Investors would think - why to buy the stocks now when they will be cheaper next month," Polancec said.
Before the debate on INA, deputies briefly discussed a proposal to confirm a Memorandum of Understanding between Croatia and the European Community on Croatia's participation in the Community's programme concerning energy, called "Intelligence Energy in Europe" (2003-2006).