The government will extend the public debate on the introduction of property tax to April 1 next year so that people get a better picture of what benefits it will bring them and how much it will cost them, Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic announced at the start of a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
Milanovic emphasised that the tax must not increase the total tax burden and threaten the middle class as the backbone of the economy. He said that in the coming days the government would start consultations on changes to the taxation system, which he called obsolete.
The government's plan to extend the public debate on property tax was confirmed to the press before the Cabinet meeting by Finance Minister Slavko Linic, who said that the new tax would be introduced next year and that additional communication with people was necessary because interest groups had spread lies about the new tax through the media.
"All this year interest groups have been writing lies, giving untrue estimates, so we have decided that it will take us three months of public debate to try and explain how much money rich people have to pay for advertisements, newspapers and false news. We need three months to repair the damage done by those who are opposing the property tax," Linic said.
Commenting on media reports on the alleged sale of another 19 per cent of shares of the INA oil company to Hungary's MOL, Linic said that this would be decided by the government, but that he personally would be "very clearly against it because MOL is a strategic partner that did not invest".
