ZAGREB, August 10, 2019 - Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Davor Bernardić on Saturday called on the government to lower the VAT rate on the entire restaurant sector, criticising it for still lacking a tourism development strategy.
Speaking to reporters in the coastal city of Split, Bernardić said that this year's results in the tourism sector were less good than last year.
"Unfortunately, indicators for this year are poorer than last year... and the real question is what the government is doing to make up for the lack of revenue that will most certainly affect the state budget. There is evidently no strategy, and VAT, notably in the restaurant sector, is still the highest in Europe, 25%," Bernardić said, noting that Italy, Spain, Portugal and France had a VAT rate in the restaurant sector ranging between 10 and 13 percent and that rival destinations in the Mediterranean were growing stronger every day.
"The last tax reform round has introduced discrimination between those in the restaurant sector who serve food and those who serve drinks. We will continue to insist that VAT on all restaurant services be lowered to 13%," Bernardić said.
The government recently decided to reduce VAT on food in the restaurant sector from the current 25% to 13%.
Asked to comment on President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović's response to a request by the MOST opposition party that she call an extraordinary session of the parliament to discuss a vote of no confidence in Health Minister Milan Kujundžić, Bernardić said that the president had shifted responsibility onto the Constitutional Court.
If the President of the Republic believes that the Constitution has been violated, which is what the opposition believes is the case, she has the right to protect the Constitution and the Republic and call a special parliament session. She does not need the opinion of the Constitutional Court for that, Bernardić said.
Reporters also asked him for a comment on the HDZ party's opposition to the cultivation of hemp and liberalisation of the hemp market, to which he said that the HDZ itself had liberalised the use of hemp two months ago.
Now is the time to make an additional step, he said, adding that aside from its use for medicinal purposes, the SDP also wanted hemp to be used in 25,000 products in the construction, tourism and pharmaceutical sectors, as it would provide an opportunity for economic growth and job creation.
An SDP official from Split, Goran Kotur, said that the city's industrial sector had been destroyed and that tourism was the only remaining industrial branch, calling for making order in the tourism sector and developing it in line with principles of sustainability, which, he said, the city's administration, led by HDZ mayor Andro Krstulović Opara, was not doing.
More SDP news can be found in the Politics section.
