Weekly Review of Slovene Economy from 13 to 18 May

Ljubljana, 18 May - WEEKLY/REVIEW/ ECONOMY
At its regular session Thursday, the Government discussed the current economic policy, adopting a package of measures intended to disburden economy and promote investment. Insisting on strict anti-inflation policy, the Government rejected claims for raising telecommunications and oil derivative prices. Three Slovene oil companies - Istrabenz, Petrol and Nafta Lendava- claimed a rise in purchase prices by 20 to 23 percent and margins by 26.9 percent. Government proposals include lowering social security contributions from the current 42 to 38 per cent, adopting the bills on taxes to paid salaries and on company tax, and changing the law on legal persons' income tax. The company tax is to be paid once yearly by all registered companies. For public limited companied the tax is to be 120,000 Slovene tolars (SIT), for other capital companies and personal ones it is to be SIT 70,000, and for independent entrepreneurs and natural persons SIT 30,000 per year. In 1996 the taxpayers will pay only a half of the whole year's liabilities. Tax concession is to increase from 20 to 30 percent, which would disburden economy by at least SIT 4.3 billion.