The tax burden in Croatia is too high and represents one of the key obstacles to the recovery of the domestic economy, said the head of the Croatian Employers’ Association, Ivica Mudrinić.
The further introduction of new taxes at a time when we are at the very bottom is not in anyone’s interest, Mudrinić claims in an interview for Večernji list. He states that, on a principled level, employers find the idea acceptable that the taxation of labor and capital should, in the long term, be partially replaced by stronger taxation of consumption and property.
However, such a turnaround, Mudrinić emphasizes, means a deep tax reform that should be prepared for 3-4 years.
When asked whether they lost a key interlocutor in HUP with the departure of Radimir Čačić, Mudrinić replies that Čačić understood the key problems of business and directed his competence and energy towards the economy.
He points out that the planned large investment projects announced by the government are delayed, but that employers are pleased with the change in rhetoric and the increasingly vocal emphasis on the necessity of initiating investments in the private sector.
Regarding the announcements of 400,000 unemployed in the coming year, he says: Unfortunately, this is not an unrealistic scenario, and to avoid this, we are forced to find a way in the short term to increase the economy’s capacity to create new jobs.
