Finance Minister Slavko Linic has said that banks can monitor the payment of contributions from salaries, as they have all the necessary data, and payment transactions are a public rather than a private job of banks.
Asked by reporters on Thursday to comment on commercial banks' complaints that they could not monitor payments of contributions, Minister Linic said that there was no reason to spark off debates between individual ministers and banks about technical details.
"Ask banks how they impose distraint upon clients' bank accounts, how they know all the data (in such cases). Thus, banks know everything and do a public job. The transaction of payments is not a private job of banks," Linic told reporters outside the government's building before the beginning of today's government meeting.
This past Tuesday Linic said that it would no longer be possible to pay net salaries without paying contributions.
There is a law in Croatia under which net salaries may not be paid without the payment of contributions, but the law is not respected and no one reacts. As of February 1, we are introducing a system where, if at the time of payment of a net salary no contributions are paid, the bank that carries out the transaction will have to pay the contributions in question, Linic said.
On Wednesday, the Croatian Banking Association (HUB) said that there were several reasons why it was technically impossible to monitor payments of contributions. The HUB claim that the banks have no way of distinguishing between types of payment because under the present regulations it is not required to specify the type of payment on payment orders.
The banks do not have, nor should they have, information about people's incomes, benefits, deductions, administrative bans or benefits to be able to check the accuracy of calculations, the HUB said.
