ZAGREB, May 21, 2020 – The Voice of Entrepreneurs association on Thursday held a protest rally in St. Mark’s Square bringing together casual hauliers, hospitality business owners and event managers who demanded state job keeping support to offset the consequences of the COVID-19 epidemic.
More than a hundred people gathered carrying posters with slogans like “Stop parafiscal payments,” “Abolish tariffs,” and the like.
The association’s president Hrvoje Bujas said that talks were held for the first time this morning with three ministers – finance, tourism and transport.
“They are finally starting to take us seriously. We were given clear guarantees by the ministries,” said Bujas.
“Today we heard Tourism Minster Gari Cappelli say that as of May 27 Croatia will know how much of the €500 billion from EU funds it will get. Whether that will be 1 billion, two or three, we will see and then we will know how much of that will go through the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (HBOR) and how much via the Hamag-Bicro agency for SMEs to subsidise and possibly extend job keeping measures. Today they announced that the measures would be extended month by month, that means for June and July and that the criteria will be more rigorous than now,” Bujas explained.
Protestors expect talks with the said ministries to continue in one week’s time when they expect an answer about how much money Croatia will have at its disposal and what will be done with regard to leasing companies who do not wish to talk with them.
Casual hauliers have asked banks and leasing companies for a moratorium on loans and leasing contracts for a period of at least 12 months and for interest to be written off as well as grants from EU funds to bail out that sector and for job keeping measures to be extended for an additional three months.
They demand that periodic technical inspections be abolished for the duration of the epidemic. They have called for interest to either be abolished or at least reduced to 0.5 to 1 percent from the current 4 percent.
