Press Release - 2nd Set of Recommendations for Economic Relief

AmCham welcomes and supports the efforts of the Croatian Government to help entrepreneurs overcome the period of crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic by ensuring liquidity and introducing measures to protect jobs, as well as considering the reduction of parafiscal charges. AmCham is preparing its proposal for their reduction or abolition, and has just presented a proposal for additional measures to help the economy.

“The measure involving the write-off of taxes and other contributions is certainly a step in the right direction, but it should not be limited to small taxpayers, while others can get only a partial write-off, a deferral or an installment payment. Even though a partial write-off or deferral can provide relief regarding the lack of liquidity over the next several months, it will significantly burden taxpayers in the period following the end of the special circumstances, and slow down the economic recovery. Therefore, we propose an extension of the scope of the measure involving a write-off of tax and contributions on salaries to include all economic operators whose activities are affected by COVID-19, regardless of their size,” said Doko Jelušić.

"As far as measures to preserve jobs are concerned, we support an increase in the financial support to entrepreneurs in order to retain the number of employees, but we believe that the introduction of percentage-based participation in the coverage of costs of salaries should be considered. The introduced measures to protect jobs are not sufficient to provide compensation for a highly-educated workforce, and it is likely that a large number of such workers will find themselves out of work, which may lead to Croatian companies being pushed out from the global market. Also, in order to protect jobs in all business entities, regardless of their business sector, we propose the introduction of new legal categories of employment, such as furlough leave, which is successfully applied by, for instance, Slovenia,” concludes Doko Jelušić.

Given the seasonality of tourism, which will not achieve a new wave of demand, and, consequently, financial income, before the summer of 2021, AmCham proposes a number of special measures for this sector, such as an urgent extension of measures for protecting jobs for a period of 12 months, a write-off of parafiscal charges for a period of 12 months, a write-off of taxes and contributions on salaries in correlation with the intensity of the decline in income, and corrections of the price of electricity and water for tourist companies for a period of 12 months.