I read on eConsultation the public discussion about the amendment to the Regulation on the annual flat-rate membership fee for those providing hospitality services in households and family farms, which reduces the annual flat-rate membership fee for tourist boards this year by fifty percent. It sounds good, but judging by the proposals from interested renters, it would have been better if the Minister of Tourism Gari Cappelli had returned to the old Regulation for this year.
Namely, the Regulation from December last year changed the determination of membership fee payments: instead of the previous income-based fee, a flat-rate payment was introduced, which everyone seems to have welcomed. As one participant in the public discussion said, ‘the main advantage of the flat-rate model is its simplicity and that it does not encourage renters to falsify their revenue (reporting less than achieved)’, but also noted that the December Regulation increased the fee and that ‘the amount per bed must not be higher than the previously average charged fee per bed’. Especially since, he asserted, they do not benefit as much from HTZ and local tourist boards as they pay in.
Realizing that the fee is too high
Thus, the flat-rate determination of the fee is generally welcomed (the Association of Renters and Tourism Malinska – Dubašnica believes that the fee should still be calculated based on income), but they believe it should have been cheaper, so this reduction does not particularly please them. For example, a renter who participated in the discussion said that ‘the flat-rate tourist fee at the reduced amount of fifty percent is still quite higher’ compared to payments based on revenue from previous years.
The flat rate was probably intended to put an end to those who falsify revenue, but at the time of the Regulation’s adoption, no one knew that ‘the corona would come to visit us’ first. And when it came, the minister realized that the flat-rate fee was certainly too high, so he decided to halve it for this year. I believe that the Ministry of Tourism had good intentions because we know that tourism will suffer this year (the owner of a small travel agency said that until recently he had no reservations at all, and even now it is ‘a cry to God’), but reading the thoughts of renters, I concluded that this year it is really best to postpone the full implementation of the new Regulation. Thus, one of them said that it is fine for the tourist fee to be reduced by fifty percent, but if tourist traffic this year is below fifty percent of last year’s, he also suggested that it should be further reduced.
