After the discontent expressed by pensioners whose entire pension income was subject to garnishment by Fina, Minister of Labor Mirando Mrsić confirmed for the first time this morning on the Poligraf show of Croatian Radio that this will no longer happen.
Pensions will be adjusted and paid on time, we will instruct the Pension Insurance Institute that pensions will no longer be garnished, only one third may be taken, Mrsić stated.
The Ministry of Finance, with a new regulation on the method and procedure for implementing garnishments on monetary funds, has equalized all citizens of Croatia in cases where garnishment of their income is carried out by the employer, explicitly stating that garnishment can only be executed on the part of the salary that exceeds the so-called protected amount of salary.
As explained by Finance Minister Slavko Linić, this was intended to ensure that one third of the salary or pension must always remain for the livelihood of citizens. This has stopped citizens, who were signing anything, and banks, which were abusing this, he added. Namely, until now, in the case of an agreement on the possibility of garnishing the entire salary signed before June 17, 2008, the rule on the prescribed protected amount of salary was not applied, and garnishment was carried out on the entire salary.
