ZAGREB, Feb 22 (Hina) - The Croatian Finance Ministry's tax service has blocked the Croatian Printers' account ("Hrvatska tiskara" - HT) due to unpaid Value Added Tax. The Ministry has also decided on a forced collection of more than
US$300,000 of the company's debt. Due to the blockade of the account, the issuing of the press printed at the HT could be stopped as early as Tuesday. The HT is printing all "Europapress holding" editions (high-circulation weeklies such as Globus, Mila, Arena and a series of specialised magazines) as well as the dailies "Jutarnji list", "Sportske novosti" and "Vjesnik". The HT was pushed into financial problems by press publishers who failed to make regular payments for printing services. The publishers could not meet their commitments towards the HT because they themselves were not receiving any payments from the press distributor "Tisak" for sold papers. "Tis
ZAGREB, Feb 22 (Hina) - The Croatian Finance Ministry's tax service
has blocked the Croatian Printers' account ("Hrvatska tiskara" -
HT) due to unpaid Value Added Tax. The Ministry has also decided on a
forced collection of more than US$300,000 of the company's debt.
Due to the blockade of the account, the issuing of the press printed
at the HT could be stopped as early as Tuesday. The HT is printing
all "Europapress holding" editions (high-circulation weeklies
such as Globus, Mila, Arena and a series of specialised magazines)
as well as the dailies "Jutarnji list", "Sportske novosti" and
"Vjesnik".
The HT was pushed into financial problems by press publishers who
failed to make regular payments for printing services.
The publishers could not meet their commitments towards the HT
because they themselves were not receiving any payments from the
press distributor "Tisak" for sold papers. "Tisak's" debt to
Croatian press publishers amounts to about US$15 million.
Creditors and Government representatives on January 26 agreed that
all daily inflow of "Tisak", estimated at US$750,000, would be used
for covering the company's debt to the publishers. A deadline was
set for a final agreement on taking over "Tisak" by the creditors -
Monday, February 22. "Tisak" is owned by Miroslav Kutle.
Officials at "Sportske novosti" said "there have always been" debts
to the HT. Nobody had notified them the paper would not hit news-
stands tomorrow, so the editorial board was preparing tomorrow's
issue as usual.
"Europapress holding" claims it has no debts towards the HT.
The company also says the HT has confirmed all editions would be
printed normally. The debt of "Tisak" to Europapress holding, on
the other hand, amounts to just below US$3.5 million.
Representatives of "Vjesnik" say they have not been informed about
any stoppage in the printing. No one at the paper was available for a
comment on whether "Vjesnik" has any debts towards the HT.
(hina) jn rml