Finance Minister Marko Primorac said on Wednesday in the parliament that the measure to lower the VAT rate on a wide range of products did not have the desired effect because those who were supposed to have taken on part of the burden of the crisis did not do so.

“On several occasions, the government reduced the VAT rate on a wide range of products in an effort to lower prices, but the measure did not fully achieve the desired effects, not because the government did something wrong, it showed good will and decisiveness, but because they who were supposed to take on part of the burden during the crisis, retailers, manufacturers and everyone else in line, did not do so,” Primorac said during Question Time when asked about lower VAT rates by Boris Lalovac (Social Democratic Party).

Primorac underlined that this is why the government is planning an additional profit tax. According to him, this will identify cases in which someone exploits government subsidies, earmarked for citizens to mitigate the impact of inflation, and directs them towards extra profits.

He added that the government will then redistribute the extra income to citizens.

Minister of Tourism Nikolina Brnjac said this year’s tourism results were excellent, highlighting that the value of fiscalised receipts is already HRK 5 billion higher than in all of 2019 and that the Croatian National Bank estimates that revenue from foreign tourists will amount to €11.3 billion.

Health Minister Vili Beroc said that it is necessary to continue working on the financial sustainability and stability of the health system, stating that the rehabilitation of the healthcare sector cost HRK 6.7 billion last year, but that the situation is much better.

“Until now, HRK 1.7 billion has been used to bail out the sector, and by the end of the year I expect some more, but that will by no means be as much as last year,” said Beroc, responding to MP Danijelo Spajic’s (DP party) question about the deficit in healthcare.

Berocssaid that he hopes solutions will be found at the government level, that there will never be a shortage of medicines, and that access to and the quality of healthcare will be maintained throughout the country.

Katarina Peovic (Workers’ Front) asked the prime minister why agreements with arbitration clauses are not revoked because Croatia will lose billions of kuna, and asserted that everything the he and ministers said today supports her thesis that they are a quisling government.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic replied that what she was saying was in line with her pro-Russian policy. “You are among the few who did not vote for the Resolution on Ukraine. The way you look at Croatia’s position is to return us to isolation.”