ZAGREB, March 19, 2020 – The price of cigarettes will go up by up to HRK 2 per pack starting April, and there will also be an increase in the prices of alcoholic beverages, soft drinks with higher sugar content and energy drinks, the Croatian government decided on Thursday.
The government adopted regulations governing excise taxes and special taxes on those products. Three regulations were adopted – on excise taxes on tobacco and tobacco products, on excise taxes on alcohol and alcoholic drinks, and on the calculation and variables for special taxes on coffee and soft drinks – to come into force on April 1.
The regulation on excise taxes on tobacco and tobacco products will increase the tax by HRK 35, from HRK 335 to HRK 370 for a thousand products.
The Finance Ministry estimates that the state budget would get an additional HRK 400 million from the increase in the excise tax on tobacco and tobacco products.
The regulation on excise taxes on alcohol and alcohol beverages, the government estimates, would bring an additional HRK 30.3 million.
Excise taxes on beer, wine and other fermented beverages will not change, the government says.
Finance Minister Zdravko Marić said that in the EU Croatia had one of the lowest excise taxes on alcohol, and that it was followed only by Bulgaria.
Underscoring that the regulation on excise taxes had nothing to do with the coronavirus, Marić said that they had been in contact with domestic manufacturers of alcohol and alcoholic beverages.
The government also adopted a regulation on the calculation and variables for special taxes on soft drinks, and the changes were connected to the calculation of the special tax on soft drinks and energy drinks.
Now the excise on soft drinks consists only of a fixed part, HRK 40 per hectolitre, but under the new regulation it will also depend on the volume and sugar content.
The fixed part would remain, but it would be cut to HRK 20 per hectolitre, while the remaining part of the tax would depend on the sugar, taurine and methylxanthine content.
Based on these changes, the state budget should earn an additional HRK 64 million by the end of the year.
More news about taxes can be found in the Business section.
