ZAGREB, Oct 15, 2020 – Owners of souvenir shops on Thursday warned at a press conference that because of their speciality they should be separated from retail stores, as that would help them to survive in conditions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
A spokesman for an association of souvenir keepers, Bruno Siroki, said that that activity is treated as pure retail, like shopping centres and food stores, which means that all conditions for retail stores such as trading hours apply to souvenir stores too.
According to Siroki, that additionally burdens the status of souvenir stores which have already experienced a dramatic drop in turnover because of the pandemic.
The association has called for souvenir stores to be treated as a separate activity under the National Classification of Activities (NKD) and categorised as “destination retail,” which could then include all other seasonal retail activities as well.
They also asked that similar to other seasonal activities, the new NKD category be taxed with the “tourism” VAT rate of 13%.
With regard to trading hours, they asked for an exemption from the ban on Sunday and public holiday trading.
They also asked for a review of rental costs in city, state and municipal properties and that these be adapted to the current economic situation while they expect banks to provide favourable micro loans to ensure liquidity.
“We want our demands to be met because in the current conditions our survival is in question. Turnover has dropped between 80% and 90% and we cannot even afford to stay open,” said Siroki.
That means we will have to close down and jobs will be lost, he added.
