NEW CHILDREN ALLOWANCE ACT TO BECOME EFFECTIVE AS OF 1 OCTOBER

ZAGREB, June 15 (Hina) - As of October 1 a new law on children allowance will be in effect. A circle of persons entitled to be covered by this law will be broadened. The number of the current 230,000 children who use benefits of child allowance will climb between 450 and 500 thousand, Croatian Social Welfare Minister Davorko Vidovic told reporters on Thursday. The Government today defined amendments and supplements to the children allowance act and will forward them into the urgent parliamentary procedure. The means for the law's enforcement will be earmarked from the state budget, but it has not yet clearly defined. One of possibilities is to cut or annul tariff concessions in cars' import, Vidovic said. The new act stipulates that unemployed parents and farmers may use benefits of this law (who were not covered by the previous law). The minister said the announced date (October 1) when the new law would finally come into force confirmed that the Government had real reasons for postponing the law's implementation from 1 March when it claimed that the new act could not become effective, owing to technical, personnel and financial obstacles. Vidovic told reporters that a concept of an act on the settlement of the debt to Croatian retirees had been drafted. The amount of the debt and sources for the debt settlement have been defined, but Vidovic will comment on this in detail next week. (hina) mm ms