The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) leader, Tomislav Karamarko, on Wednesday said that his party opposed the draft budget for 2013 because it was not developmental but started with a projected 11 billion kuna deficit and would just deepen the recession in Croatia.
"There could be some justification for this deficit if it had something to do with investment projects but there is no mention of them and the deficit is due to budget spending", the head of the largest opposition party told a press conference in the HDZ headquarters.
The budget is a poor copy of this year's budget which counts on drawing about four billion kuna out of the pockets of citizens through various taxes and inflation which will only go to fill some of the budget gaps. Reforms are again being delayed, the deficit is increasing, GDP will not grow and purchasing power will continue to fall, he said.
He added that the government was counting on three billion kuna in revenue by selling or giving a concession for the Croatian Postal Bank (HPB) and Croatia Osiguranje insurance company which means selling off national treasures in order to keep the peace.
"How can we talk about progress when the government is prepared to give away 80 million kuna to be advised to sell off its national treasures instead of investing into consultants that could tell us something constructive about possible investments into Croatia", he said.
Karamarko commented on Tuesday's heated debate over the budget in the Sabor and claimed that when the prime minister didn't know what to answer he reaches out for insults.
