Without the VAT on excise duties, a litre of fuel would cost around 9 kuna.
The price of a litre of petrol has been above 10.50 kuna for weeks, while the price of diesel has also surpassed 10 kuna. This has prompted some citizens to organise a protest against high fuel prices, which naturally increase their cost of living as well, reports Večernji List on June 7, 2018.
The Facebook group “Let’s Stop Fuel Price Increases” already has more than 40,000 members. It has called on citizens to join the protest called “Croatia Stops”. On June 15 at 5 pm, in protest against rising fuel prices, drivers will stop their vehicles on the streets and roads in order to pressure the government to reduce excise duties on fuel and lower its price for the end consumer to around 9 kuna per litre.
Group members are still debating how precisely the protest will be organised, with some proposing that drivers should stop their cars on the main streets in Zagreb, which are heavily crowded on Friday afternoon anyway. Others say that drivers should go to fuel stations on that day and buy just two litres of fuel.
But before the protest in Croatia, similar activities are planned by citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, on 10 and 12 June respectively. In Serbia, the price of a litre of petrol is somewhat less than 10 kuna, while in Bosnia it is slightly higher than nine kuna. However, the standard of living and salaries in these countries are considerably lower.
In Croatia, excise duties and VAT make almost 60 percent of the price of one litre of fuel. Excise duty per litre amounts to 3.86 kuna, and then VAT has to be paid on it, which means that citizens are actually paying “a tax on a tax.” If excise duty were exempted from the VAT, a litre of petrol would now cost 9.09 kuna, instead of 10.5 kuna.
Vladimir Kuzmić from Crodux says that in other European countries the VAT is also paid on excise duties, but there are many countries with mechanisms to reduce fuel prices, including with floating excise duties.
Finance Minister Zdravko Marić has repeatedly said that Croatia will not change excise duties on fuel for now because of the upcoming tourist season and the arrival of numerous tourists and their cars, which will undoubtedly make for a nice revenue stream for the state budget.
Translated from Večernji List (reported by Josip Bohutinski).
