Taxi drivers' associations from Zagreb, Split, Dubrovnik and Kastela on Friday "commented on amendments to the Road Transport Act," state agency Hina reported on Friday. They accused the government of having "knowingly failed to regulate the taxi market" and deal with the "chaos" caused by the 2018 amendments to the law, which they described as "ill-considered."

The associations dismissed accusations that they were against market liberalization, stressing that their proposals would help “reduce the existing anomalies to a minimum”, enabling the state to better supervise all taxi operators and local government units to better control local taxi operators.

“The existing situation, in which one can operate hundreds of vehicles with a single permit, is resulting in tax fraud and market chaos,” they said, noting that the activity of tax transport in Croatia was the least regulated in Europe.

“Why does not Transport Minister Oleg Butkovic, who does not want to accept our proposals, simply take examples of good practice from other countries and copy them? Instead of that, he is accusing us, who have nothing to do with politics, of petty politicking, claiming that we are demanding an end to market liberalization, which is not true,” the associations said.

Demanding that a taxi driver should have an original license, that local government units determine the price of taxi licenses, and that taxi drivers are registered as full-time employees does not mean demanding an end to market liberalisation, the associations said, noting that an unregulated market resulted in “lack of control, tax fraud and safety problems.”