Entrepreneurs are still dissatisfied with the development of the business environment in Slovakia, Slovak Business Alliance (PAS) CEO Peter Kremský said on Tuesday. As TASR reported, the alliance evaluated the business environment negatively also in the final quarter of 2016 with the business environment index set up by PAS dropped by 2.1% quarter-on-quarter to 51.6 points in this period. This negative evaluation was slightly less pessimistic than in the previous quarter, said Kremský. He sees the reason in certain legislative changes that businessmen evaluated positively, such as a reduction in corporate income tax and a modification of legislation governing bankruptcy, restructuring and distraint proceedings. However, as Kremský said, negative perceptions prevailed in the survey.
The introduction of a dividend tax, a levy on non-life insurance and changes in mandatory transfers to social and health-care funds contributed towards the negative evaluation. "Entrepreneurs sense this as a worsening of the situation in general," stressed Kremsky. Compliance with the principle of equality before the law posted the highest drop among all IPP components. "Entrepreneurs very negatively perceive cases in which it's evident that 'our people' enjoy better business conditions. They have more opportunities, better access to state orders, to EU funds, subsidies, investment stimuli," explained Kremsky, giving the example of the tax fraud-related Bašternák case, which allegedly involves Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák.
