ZAGREB, Oct 26, 2020 – The Transport Ministry said on Monday, following a protest rally by hauliers in Zagreb, that freight transport was not as affected by the corona crisis as passenger transport and that the government had taken a series of measures to help the transport sector.
The Ministry acknowledged that the transport sector, along with tourism, was one of the most affected by the crisis, but noted that freight transport was not as badly hit as passenger transport.
It said that since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the government had adopted a number of measures to help hauliers.
“Some of the measures were adopted even before the pandemic, such as the refund of excise taxes on freight transport, whereby an estimated HRK 240 million has been refunded to hauliers. No government before has made such a decision,” the Ministry said in a statement.
Among the measures adopted by the government was a discount on motorway tolls and exemption from paying a portion of the fee for CEMT permits.
As regards the protesters’ demands for exemption from parafiscal levies such as the public television subscription fee and the fee for tourist boards and the cancellation of mandatory membership of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce and the Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts, the Ministry said that these matters did not fall within its purview.
As for the border crossing regime with Slovenia, the Ministry said that the present restrictions had been unilaterally imposed by Slovenia.
Based on the statements by representatives of hauliers today, the impression is that their intention is to use local roads and local border crossing points as much as possible, which poses an indirect risk to road safety, while our intention is for trucks to use motorways as much as possible for safety reasons because many people live along local roads, the statement said
The Ministry said it was working on arrangements to improve the flow of traffic at main border crossing points and to reduce wait times for trucks awaiting inspection at the border.
