ZAGREB, Jan 5 (Hina) - The Croatian government led by Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, which held its first session on Monday, proposed the reduction of the current 22 percent of the Value Added Tax to 20 percent, and the lower rate would
be applied as of 1 January 2005.
slovne usluge-Politika
ZAGREB, Jan 5 (Hina) - The Croatian government led by Prime Minister
Ivo Sanader, which held its first session on Monday, proposed the
reduction of the current 22 percent of the Value Added Tax to 20
percent, and the lower rate would be applied as of 1 January 2005.#L#
Explaining the decision on the reduced VAT and its application set for
next year, PM Sanader said the intention was "to create a climate in
which this two percent will end up in the pockets of Croatian
citizens".
We would like to invest that sum of three to 3.5 billion kuna, for
which the budget will be smaller because of the lower VAT, into the
standard of Croatian citizens rather than into profit, Sanader said.
He went on to say that the law on the reduced VAT could not have a
retroactive effect, namely could not go into force on 1 January 2004,
as amendments to the law should undergo parliamentary procedure and it
was necessary to check the situation in the state finance.
PM Sanader and Finance Minister Ivan Suker announced that they would
bring more order into state and public finance. Therefore, the
re-introduction of the finance police is being planned, Sanader
added.
The finance minister said more efficient measures to curb the grey
economy and a more efficient collection of state revenues would create
conditions for the cut in VAT and facilitate other sorts of tax
relief.
Suker also spoke about some illogical elements in the current method
of collection of state revenues and especially of VAT. Therefore he
believes that that a great part of money which should go into the
state budget ends outside it.
He said that the government had not yet managed to collect 25 billion
kuna, and he believes the figure could reach 30 billion.
PM Sanader called on other ministers to inform the finance minister as
soon as possible on the annulment of what he said was an unnecessarily
high number of bank accounts in some ministries. For instance, some
ministries have 15, 16 or even 26 accounts, he said.
At the start of the session, when he wished fruitful work to his
ministers to the benefit of all citizens, PM announced that his
cabinet was going to adopt a decree in the course of the day on
changes to the law on Homeland War veterans.
The decree will revoke a provision in the existent law which
stipulates that rights which a war veteran or his/her family enjoys
cease to exist if the veteran goes to custody or prison.
We have checked and seen that there was no such provision in the
previous law on war veterans, it was incorporated in the law which the
former government adopted, he said, adding that his cabinet would not
wait for a parliamentary session and the Sabor's decision but it would
annul the contentious provision by the decree.
(Hina) ms