ZAGREB, September 26, 2018 - Finance Minister Zdravko Marić said on Wednesday that the government's tax changes would reduce, over a period of three years, the tax burden on citizens and businesses in the amount of some 6.3 billion kuna, and that given that there was no tax change that could increase the net income for citizens with below-average wages, he was proposing expanding the scope of products to be taxed by a lower, 13% VAT rate.

ZAGREB, September 5, 2018 - Finance Minister Zdravko Marić said on Wednesday that it was most likely that guarantees issued to the Uljanik and 3. Maj shipyards, which are part of the Uljanik Group, would be activated and that they amounted to almost 70 million euro.

ZAGREB, September 1, 2018 - Finance Minister Zdravko Marić told Večernji List on Saturday that the state budget would withstand the payment of costs related to the ailing Uljanik shipbuilding group and the Petrokemija artificial fertiliser producer and that there would be no corrections on its revenue side or an increase in taxes, however, he did call for long-term solutions "so that we stop financing and salvaging always the same loss-making companies."

The ex Agrokor boss and current fugitive in London gave an interview to Dnevnik Nove TV ahead of the British ruling on his extradition to Croatia to face trial.

ZAGREB, August 27, 2018 - The Conflict of Interest Commission on Monday reopened a case against Finance Minister Zdravko Marić regarding the Agrokor case and merged it with a newly-lodged complaint filed against him by the Živi Zid party. It also opened a case concerning Interior Minister Davor Božinović.

ZAGREB, August 25, 2018 - GLAS party leader Anka Mrak Taritaš said on Friday that it was now undoubtedly clear that Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and his ministers had lied to the Croatian public about the so-called Borg group and Agrokor, and that they had used state institutions to help a particular interest group gain significant material benefit.

ZAGREB, August 24, 2018 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković would not give concrete answers on Thursday when asked about the publication of deposition transcripts concerning the Agrokor conglomerate, saying it was "an orchestrated attack on the government."

ZAGREB, August 23, 2018 - Finance Minister Zdravko Marić said on Thursday that he had not seen the whole transcript of depositions by former economy minister Martina Dalić and other witnesses questioned by the Office of the Chief State Prosecutor (DORH) which indicate, according to the commercial broadcaster N1, that Marić had been at more meetings about Agrokor than what he told the Conflict of Interest Commission.

Uljanik's workers' strike will have an important role to play in the direction of the unfolding crisis - either by means of bankruptcy or by some sort of controlled settlement.

Marić insists that the government is trying to do all it can, but that owing to EU rules, even HBOR's hands are tied.