January 21, 2018
The National Assembly will hold a week-long regular session, starting on Monday with questions time for the government, the STA notes January 21, 2018. The session will be interrupted on Wednesday, as the parliament staff will be on strike alongside a number of public sector unions to demand higher pay.
Following questions time on Monday, on Tuesday the MPs will discuss two bills proposed by the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology.
The tourism development bill, discussed at first reading, would cap the tourist tax at EUR 2.5 per person a day and introduce a tourism promotion tax. The amount of tourist tax would remain in the purview of municipalities, while the promotion tax would amount to 25% of the tourist tax.
The economic ministry expects to collect nearly EUR 5m with the promotion tax, which is to be spent for the Tourism Board's promotion campaign. The bill also allocates nearly EUR 7m for municipalities to spend on tourism promotion.
The MPs will also discuss at second reading a bill overhauling the Lipica Stud Farm act. The changes would make the stud property a monument of national importance, while the stud would be managed by a state-owned holding.
The bill redefines the status and the management of the protected area, a 311-hectare Karst estate with a herd of the famous white horses, and the estate's cultural heritage.
In addition to the stud farm becoming a monument of national importance, the traditional Lipizzaner breeding and training would be listed as intangible heritage of national importance, under the bill proposed by the economy ministry.
The MPs will also discuss at second reading a bill on the education of adults act, which is aimed at setting up a stable system of funding. The bill, which enjoys the support of all parties, is also set to connect all adult education institutions in a public network.
After a break on Wednesday due to a strike of the staff of the parliament house, the MPs will discuss amendments to the freedom of information act, amendments to real estate recording act and amendments to pay services act on Thursday.
Filed by coalition MPs, the freedom of information act aims to prevent journalists whose requests for information have been unsuccessful from being liable for the cost of procedure incurred by third parties. The changes were prompted by demands of journalists and were approved by the home policy committee unanimously.
The real estate recording act, in third reading, is a part of a real estate legislation package accompanying a new act on mass property valuation, which stepped into force on 11 January.
Under the new property valuation act, the registered value of real estate will not change with the changed market value of real estate. Instead, the appraisal model will be evaluated every two years.
The session will conclude on Friday with general debate on two tax bills sponsored by the opposition Democrats (SDS).
The party proposes that the taxable amount of cadastral income, which is planned to be raised from the current 40% to 100% by 2020, remain at the current level, and that the income tax rate should be reduced by two percentage points.
