Croatian Finance Minister Slavko Linic on Friday expressed satisfaction with the collection of budget revenues and with the pace of budget expenditures in the first half of 2012 when the revenues totalled HRK 53 billion, or 3.4 percent higher than in H1 2011, and the budget spending went down by 1.8 percent to HRK 58.8 billion.
According to the minister, both the revenues and expenditures are going on as planned, and he ruled out a budget revision for the time being.
There are some examples of wages slightly exceeding the planned wage budget in H1 2012, however, given the ongoing negotiations with the public-sector trade unions, Linic said he believed that some additional savings would be made.
The minister said that he was "positively surprised" with the negotiations with public-sector trade unions in which all but the education sector trade unions, showed understanding and their comprehension of the situation.
On the other hand he was "shocked at employers' resistance to the changes".
He recalled that this government had reduced health insurance contributions by two percent which employers had to pay, while it raised the Value Added Tax rate for citizens, adding that he could not understand complaints from businesses about an anti-entrepreneurial climate.
In this context, Linic cited some other government measures which he believed would be beneficial to the entrepreneurial sector, such as the financial operations legislation and taxation legislation aimed at solving the tight cash flow.
