Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic has said that a final decision on levying taxes on interest rates on savings deposits on 1 January 2015 has not yet been made, explaining that this is a possibility which may, but needn't be used.
Asked by the press during his visit to the HEP power provider's dispatching centre in Zagreb how come that his cabinet would tax savings deposits given that it had ruled out any new taxes, the premier said on Friday that "as long as the tax is not introduced, it is not introduced". He said those were only plans.
"There are possibilities, just as it is the case with the real estate tax. Those proposals have been forwarded to the European Commission, however, it has not been stated that those taxes will be levied," Milanovic said.
The Croatian government on Thursday adopted a National Reform Programme and a Convergence Programme for the 2014-2017 period, and according to these documents, as of 2015, a 12% tax rate will be levied on interest on bank savings deposits, but interest on housing savings will not be taxed. As of 2016, a real estate tax will be introduced.
Milanovic today explained that the proposals about the said taxes were options but that a political decision should be made on whether to resort to those options.
The premier acknowledged that the new taxes were neither "conceptual nor financial" solutions, but that one should seek models to reduce the general government spending.
He said that the new taxes could not solve a critical issue: excessive spending.
Milanovic said that the general government's expenditures of HRK 150 billion were too high and the only way to pull the country out of the crisis was positive economic growth and a primary budget surplus.
(Hina)
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