EMPLOYERS' ASSOCIATION REP LEAVES CONSUMER SUPPORT COMMISSION

( Editorial: --> 4917 ) ZAGREB, Jan 16 (Hina) - The head manager of the Croatian Employers' Association, Zeljko Ivancevic, Friday cancelled his membership at the Croatian Government's commission for supporting consumers. Ivancevic informed in a letter the commission's president Marina Dalic that he could no longer be a member of the commission, as he is simultaneously the president of the Economic Social Council. The council includes representatives of employers, trade unions and the Government, and one of its principal tasks is to follow price movements. Ivancevic believed that by establishing the commission for supporting consumers, the Government was depriving the Economic Social Council of legitimacy. The Government established the commission for supporting consumers after noticing that tradesmen and manufacturers were raising prices without justification, claiming the reason was the introduction of value added tax. The commission follows prices and through the media informs consumers about such ones. Ivancevic believed "the Government's intervention measures for implementing the value added tax law systematically bypass legal associations and legitimate representatives of employers and the economy, and the effects of measures 'agreed on' in this way are short-term and discriminatory, which makes their constitutionality questionable." (hina) ha jn 161304 MET jan 98