The Chamber of Trade Crafts and Small Business (OZS) issued a statement today saying that small businesses would resort to not paying their monthly tax obligations in March and inundating the Tax Administration with requests to pay taxes in instalments. The announcement comes after months of complaints by the OZS that the government has not done enough to improve conditions for small businesses. The OZS says its data show that 6,471 small businesses were shut last year. Saying that its proposals for improvements continue to be ignored by the government, the OZS said small businesses would set into motion a plan of civil disobedience after regional consultations showed there was growing anger about the lack of action to help small businesses.
Apart from a failure to pay taxes, small businesses plan to make mass withdrawals from banks and stage a rally in Ljubljana.
Responding to the threats, the Economy Ministry said the government was acting on the requests of the OZS.
The government is working hard on a series of legislative proposals for boosting liquidity, tackling payment defaults and reducing the informal economy, said the ministry. "There is no reason for the OZS to claim that the government is not heeding the proposals of the OZS." According to the ministry, the cabinet is scheduled to adopt a number of legislative proposals dealing with one of the key demands of small businesses, the tackling of payment defaults, on Thursday.
It added that the government has been in talks with the OZS ever since its presented its list of 93 demands for the government. Some of these demands have been met in full or in part and many are in the process of being met. Only 21 are such that the government finds them unacceptable. This was echoed by the Finance Ministry, which expressed concern with the plan by small businesses to withdraw money from banks. "We believe that such a means of voicing dissatisfaction is not suitable and would only serve to worsen the already difficult financial situation facing small businesses," the Finance Ministry said.
Source: THE SLOVENIA TIMES
