Focus: The only certainty from the alleged tax reform is the increase in excise duties

The president of the Focus party, Davor Nađi, stated on Wednesday that the only certainty from the announced tax reform is that excise duties and fuel prices will rise, while it is highly questionable whether any of the announced tax reliefs will remain by January 1 of next year.

– The only thing that is certain is the tax burden. While there is talk about the surtax, the government is certainly introducing an increase in excise duties, which will raise fuel prices and intensify inflationary pressures – he said.

It is unclear, he added, how they plan to regulate the part regarding the so-called deduction for calculating contributions for pension insurance, as it is constitutionally questionable that it applies only to those with lower salaries.

He asserted that all of this is leading to further complications in the income tax system, and the pension insurance system is also becoming more complicated.

– Imagine how foreign companies planning to invest in Croatia will react when they find a situation where every city and municipality has its own income tax systems and different rules – Nađi assessed.

He emphasized that Focus is in favor of reducing tax burdens, but that this will not happen in this case; instead, there will be an increase in excise duties and even more complicated tax and pension systems.

Member of Parliament for Focus, Damir Bajs, asserted that the government’s measures, which were supposed to result in reduced inflation and increased living standards, are not yielding results.

– The announcement of the abolition of the surtax is just a smokescreen, because even if it comes into effect on January 1, salaries will lose another 10 percent of their current value due to continued inflation. The 20 or 30 euros increase in salary that is now being announced will be eaten away by inflation in a few months – said Bajs.

MP Dario Zurovec and the mayor of Sveta Nedelja stated that it is one of the first cities to abolish the surtax and ‘our example shows that it is possible to function without a surtax’.

However, the problem for all cities and municipalities is that the state manages over 80 percent of the funds collected from taxes, while only a small portion goes to counties, cities, and municipalities that have taken on significant obligations under EU projects and need money to finance their own components. ‘This is not a reform, but a transfer from the empty to the void,’ said Zurovec.