PARLIAMENT ADOPTS PUBLIC PURCHASE LAW

ZAGREB, Dec 14 (Hina) - Parliament on Friday adopted the Public Purchase Law without the opposition's Croatian Democratic Union, whose MPs boycotted the voting dissatisfied with the parliamentary majority's refusal to include in the act a provision on national privilege, which would give domestic companies precedence over foreign ones. The HDZ MPs maintain the refusal of the national privilege would put the Croatian economy, construction companies in particular, in an unequal position. The national privilege has not yielded satisfactory results as domestic companies have been selling foreign goods, said Deputy Finance Minister Damir Kustrak. Parliament today also adopted a new Domestic Payments Law, which enables deposit institutions - business banks and the Croatian National Bank - to perform payments. A government amendment enables the Croatian Post (HP) to do the same. Based on a contract with the Postal Bank, HP will continue to perform the transactions from physical to legal persons. Citizens will thus be able to continue paying their bills in post offices. A special conclusion binds the government to move a legal solution by April 1, when the Domestic Payments Law goes into force, to enable savings and loan cooperatives to perform payments for cooperative members. (hina) ha sb