Plenković promises reduction of VAT and says he is ready to debate SDP president Milanović.
Talking on Friday evening, HDZ president Andrej Plenković announced that HDZ would reduce the value-added tax next year, if they were to win parliamentary elections in September. He also accepted the invitation of SDP president Zoran Milanović to take part in a pre-election debate, reports tportal.hr on July 30, 2016.
“I can tell you that as early as next year we would reduce the VAT rate by one percentage point to 24 percent, and by the end of the term our goal is to have VAT at 23 percent”, said Andrej Plenković who added that his party would also reduce corporate taxes. “We would reduce the corporate tax from 20 to 18 percent, while for small businesses it would be considerably less than that, and it would probably amount to 12 percent. We are also considering how to reduce taxes on salaries”, said Plenković.
Asked whether he would accept SDP president Zoran Milanović’s invitation to a debate before the elections, Plenković was clear. “I am ready to take part in the debate. I have already said that. We will see what is the most appropriate moment for that. The deadlines for submission of candidate lists start after the decision of the President is published in the Official Gazette. We will come to an agreement, and voters will have an opportunity to hear our programme manifestos and our goals”, said Plenković, who also discussed the process of drafting the electoral manifesto.
“At the moment, our experts are finishing the manifesto. As you know, we had help from German experts, and numerous Croatian experts participated in the study which was made for the whole Croatian public, but was released in January after the last elections. At this point, our numerous expert committees in the party are giving their contribution to the manifesto. It will be mainly focused on economic issues, and our goal is tax reform in order to have a more simple and transparent tax system. Our experts are also working on various options relating to the income taxes and contributions to salaries”, said Plenković.
Asked whether current controversial Culture Minister Zlatko Hasanbegović would be a part of his ministerial team, Plenković did not give a clear answer. “Minister Hasanbegović is a member of the party presidency and he will be a candidate in the next elections. However, no one has yet heard any guarantees from me about whether someone would be a part of the government, and that includes Hasanbegović as well”, concluded Plenković.
