Croatian Finance Minister Zdravko Maric said on Saturday the government would agree on new excise taxes on alcohol and its products next week but did not mention figures.

Jutarnji List daily said today the government plans to increase excises on alcohol by 30% as of May and that prices will rise 4% per litre on average.

Maric said the law on excises went into force on 1 January 2019 and that there was an obligation to pass bylaws on excises on alcohol and its products, tobacco and soft drinks.

Talks on that are underway with representatives of alcoholic drink producers, he added.

“We are taking into account fiscal, health and economic elements as well as the fact that Croatia has the longest external border in the EU, therefore the issue of crossborder trade,” he said, adding that he expects the government “to agree on those numbers (next week) and then put it to public consultation.”

Maric would not say how much excises would go up but he does not “expect major market disruptions, both for producers and consumers.”

He was speaking to Croatian reporters in Brussels, where he and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic attended a meeting with European Council President Charles Michel.