Repository of the Institute of Public Finance, Zagreb
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Tax Information Exchange with the United States
No full textOn March 20, 2015, the Croatian finance minister Boris Lalovac and the US ambassador to Croatia Kenneth H. Merten signed an intergovernmental agreement on the application of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). The Act that came into force in the US in March 2010 regulates tax compliance obligations of US taxpayers with respect to their accounts held with offshore financial institutions
National budget transparency - a deterioration in the quality and comprehensiveness of government revenue and expenditure information
No full textOn September 10th, the International Budget Partnership (IBP), a non-profit organisation based in Washington, released the Open Budget Index 2015. Croatia's scored 53 out of 100 points, which, regretfully, represents a deterioration from the previous, 2012 Survey results, underscoring the need for improvements in the quality and availability of national budget information
Oil price developments and government budget revenues in Croatia
No full textThe crude oil market recorded a significant decline in prices in the second half of 2014, which led to a fall in the retail price of petrol and diesel on the Croatian market as well. In mid-February 2015, Eurosuper 95 came to 9.32 HRK per liter and Eurodiesel to 8.84 HRK. Since then fuel prices have slightly increased, primarily due to the increase of crude oil prices and a stronger HRK/USD exchange rate. Therefore, the average price of petrol on 8 March 2015 was 9.56 HRK/l and 9.01 HRK/l for diesel. Compared to the average retail price from 2014, prices in March 2015 were still on average 10% lower. The analysis shows that lower fuel prices in the long run should not have a negative impact on the revenues of the government budget due to positive price elasticity of demand, the effect of redistribution of revenues from VAT and lower public sector own expenditures
Solidarity charge - a new non-tax levy
No full textThe Government on September 3, 2015 adopted a Regulation on Amendments to the Energy Act and a Regulation on the Criteria for Granting the Status of Vulnerable Consumer of Electricity from the Energy Grid, with a view to basing its welfare policy on subsidizing electricity costs rather than providing social transfers. The use of electricity price for welfare policy purposes is a classic example of the government's quasi-fiscal activity, with an unknown financial effect and no accurate information on the number of potential beneficiaries of such a welfare measure. However, as of October 2015, the so-called „solidarity charge“ will be added to the Government's hidden levies list
A Brief Guide to the City of Zagreb 2016 Enacted Budget
No full textThe purpose of this Brief Guide is to provide the public with basic information about the City of Zagreb 2016 Enacted Budget and to encourage citizens to monitor the budget and communicate with the city authorities. On 15 November 2015, a 2016 budget and projections for 2017–18 were proposed to the City Assembly, which, after a second reading and debate, enacted them on 22 December 2015
Otvorenost državnog proračuna – pogoršanje kvalitete i opsežnosti informacija o državnim prihodima i rashodima
No full textInternational Budget Partnership (IBP), neprofitna organizacija sa sjedištem u Washingtonu, objavila je 10. rujna Indeks otvorenosti proračuna 2015. Za Hrvatsku Indeks iznosi 53 od mogućih 100 bodova, što nažalost predstavlja pogoršanje u odnosu na prethodno istraživanje iz 2012. i ukazuje kako je neophodno poboljšati kvalitetu i dostupnost podataka o državnom proračunu
The purposes of personal saving and borrowing
No full textIn 2011, The World Bank launched its database on global financial inclusion (Global Findex), providing an insight into how people around the world save, borrow, make payments and manage risks. The main finding of the 2014 edition of the database, published in April 2015, is that 62% of adults worldwide have an account at a bank or another financial institution, or use mobile money accounts, which represents an increase of 700 million from 20111 . However, two billion adults have no accounts. This article refers to only a small portion of the database relating to the purposes of saving and borrowing, and makes a comparison between Croatia and other EU Member States and Croatia’s neighbours
Fifteenth amendments to the Local Government Unit Financing Act
No full textThe Government has submitted for urgent parliamentary procedure the fifteenth Proposal for an Act on Amendments to the Act on the Financing of Units of Local and Regional Selfgovernment with the final Act Proposal. Let us recall that the Act on the Financing of Units of Local and Regional Self-government has underwent numerous changes since its adoption in 1993 (OG 117/93, 69/97, 33/00, 73/00, 127/00, 59/01, 107/01, 117/01, 150/02, 147/03, 132/06, 26/07, 73/08, 25/12 and 147/14). Therefore, the Government should finally prepare a consolidated version of the Act
Sudjelovanje građana u fiskalnoj politici i proračunskim procesima
No full textCilj je ovoga rada objasniti značaj sudjelovanja građana u fiskalnoj politici i proračunskim procesima i prikazati rezultate online ankete provedene početkom 2015. među studentima završnih godina fakulteta u Republici Hrvatskoj. Studenti su odabrani kao predstavnici mlađe populacije od koje se očekuje da bude posebice zainteresirana, jer će se morati još dugo nositi s posljedicama trenutno nezdravih, neučinkovitih i nepravednih javnih financija. Rezultati, međutim, ukazuju na slab interes i informiranost ispitanika te njihovo još slabije sudjelovanje u proračunskim procesima. Premda 50% ispitanika misli kako je moguće sudjelovati, a čak ih 80% misli da bi građani trebali sudjelovati, tek ih je 7% pokušalo. K tome, manje od 14% studenata redovito prati medijske informacije o proračunu. Znanje i razina sudjelovanja anketiranih očito je daleko od zadovoljavajuće razine. S obzirom da tek 16% odraslih hrvatskih građana ima fakultetsko obrazovanje, može se pretpostaviti da je situacija u ukupnoj populaciji još i lošija. Premda su u zadnjih petnaestak godina osnovane institucije i donesene brojne mjere za postizanje veće transparentnosti proračuna i sudjelovanja građana u proračunskim procesima, njihovo je funkcioniranje daleko od zadovoljavajuće razine