The City of Osijek’s Account Blocked Since Yesterday

The City of Osijek’s account has been blocked since yesterday because the Tax Administration of the Ministry of Finance collected 1.5 million kuna for claims related to tax refunds for citizens, which, according to the assessment of the Osijek City Administration, is incorrect as the money was withdrawn from the account without prior notice. Osijek Mayor Krešimir Bubalo stated that it would have been “correct for the Ministry of Finance to announce a day or two in advance that they would ‘withdraw’ 1.5 million kuna, and they would certainly have left that amount in the account and would not have entered into a blockade.”

The head of the Financial Administration of the City of Osijek, Marica Miloš, stated today for Hina that this concerns tax revenue that flows into the city budget from the income tax payments of workers, craftsmen, and similar, što the city then submits to the Tax Administration of the Ministry of Finance for the payment of tax refunds to citizens based on the current processing of citizens’ tax returns. The problem is that the Ministry of Finance ‘withdrew’ about 1.5 million kuna at the end of working hours yesterday, što blocked the city account, and since part of it was immediately resolved with money from the account, the remaining blockade is just over 900,000 kuna. “It is possible that the account will be unblocked today, and at the latest by Monday,” added Miloš.

Osijek Deputy Mayor Ivan Vrdoljak stated that “the announcement of the ‘withdrawal’ of money from the city account would be a minimum of tolerant business behavior,” and this is yet another proof of how much the state cares about Osijek and that part of Croatia. “The blockage of the account normally causes a series of negative consequences, što was unnecessary,” he added. For this year, since the end of June, when the tax refunds to citizens for the previous year began, the City of Osijek will, with this 1.5 million kuna, što is also the last installment to the Ministry of Finance for tax refunds to Osijek citizens, pay about 25 million kuna, said Deputy Mayor Vrdoljak. Mayor Bubalo and Deputy Mayor Vrdoljak emphasized that after taking over power in July of this year, they found the city with a debt of 70 million kuna and that they have now ‘reduced’ it to about 20 million kuna. They added that they are paying obligations daily to resolve the debt as soon as possible and to assist the businesses of all those to whom the city owes, and that they do not leave money in the account, which is why the city ended up in a blockade yesterday as they did not account for the unannounced withdrawal of the debt, which, as they emphasized, is not disputed, except for the manner in which it was done.”  (H)