Some 1,500 farmer's market vendors from Zagreb and other large Croatian cities on Monday staged a protest rally at the Dolac Farmer's Market in the upper-town Zagreb against the introduction of fiscal cash registers, on which the finance ministry insists as a measure to improve the revenue collection.
Representatives of the protesting fruit and vegetable traders said that they wanted to pay taxes but opposed the introduction of fiscal cash registers which they claim is infeasible in their working conditions.
"Our requests are clear: to re-examine the production at family-run farms and to introduce lump sum taxation as well as to prevent undeclared sale on marketplaces."
"We also want equal market rules for everybody," said Niko Pervan, the chairman of the association of sellers of fresh fruit and vegetables on Croatia’s open-air markets.
Rajko Dukic from Pula told the press that he had been engaged in the fruit and vegetable sale for 15 years and that he also advocated tax payment, underscoring however that the conditions outdoors were not the same as those in shops.
Therefore, farmer's market traders are in favour of being given a lump sum assessment base for paying taxes.
The fiscal cash registers were due to be set up at stands in open-air markets on 1 July, but market vendors immediately opposed that measure claiming that it is impossible for them to issue bills for every transaction immediately upon its conclusion on the market. Their dissatisfaction has been growing since then and today's protest is the culmination of their week-long actions against such registers.
The demonstrators proceeded from Dolac to St. Market Square which is the seat of the government.
