Weekly Review of the Slovene Economy from 3 to 9 March

Ljubljana, 11 March - Changes to the act on excise duties were adopted by the government on 8 March in a bid to gradually rise excise duties on cigarettes. Thus, excise duties are to rise every year twice (on 1 January and 1 July)so that a target 57-percent excise duty rate would be archived in line with EU standards by 1 July 2005. The government also decided to raise the prices of telephone calls by 20 percent and those of the telephone subscription fee by 15 percent. The price rise will took place in two stages, namely on 1 April and 1 June. On 1 April the price of the call unit will go up by 9.5 percent, while the price of the telephone subscription fee will rise by 7.2 percent. On 1 June the price of the call unit will go up by an additional 9.6 percent and the subscription fee will increase by 7.3 percent. The prices do not include the 19-percent VAT.