Can the state systematically help people? Every fifth person in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) lives below the poverty line.
Exempting food donations from VAT would allow food to be donated to soup kitchens. While a large number of citizens cannot afford one meal a day, companies that sell and distribute food destroy one–third of their products, because it is more cost-effective.
767.123 meals a day are destroyed due to legislation that makes the donation process more difficult, as companies have to pay 17% VAT on food donations. During that time, the gap between rich and poor in BiH is increasing. About 15 percent of the population in our country lives in absolute poverty, while almost half of the population is on the brink of poverty. At the same time, about 400.000 tons of food are destroyed and dumped in BiH every year, Radio Sarajevo writes.
“Companies annually donate about 80 million BAM of food. However, the most worrying fact is that food in BiH worth 126 million BAM is destroyed, according to the company’s answers. In fact, it pays off for them to throw away that food, to destroy it, because that creates fewer business costs for them than they would pay taxes to the state,” explained economic analyst Faruk Hadzic.
The cost of paying VAT has become the priority over caring for vulnerable populations. The poor are at a disadvantage every day. If the food that is being destroyed now reaches those who need it, the number of people living below the poverty line would be reduced. Thus, a campaign called “Never hungry. Never alone” (”Niko gladan. Niko sam”) was launched in BiHwith the appeal: Let’s reduce the destruction of food – let’s donate it.
“It’s not just a problem in the VAT law, there is a whole problem of logistics of all that, transparency, honesty and that is part of the problem that we will solve in the upcoming period to significantly improve the image and money saved by public authorities that could to be used further in soup kitchens, ” notedthe director of the Mozaik Foundation Zoran Puljic.
Due to the difficult economic situation, soup kitchens have more and more users every day. Donated daily meals or monthly aid packages from humanitarian organizations are the only way to survive for a large number of vulnerable citizens.
“Abolishing VAT or any other type of levy on food donations, both pre-expiration, and any other food, would be key to helping those in need. We have about 60 soup kitchens and 17.000 users. Not that we could feed all those people with the food that is being destroyed, but we could cover the whole region, ” pointedout Elvir Karalic, the founder of the Pomozi.ba Association.
A dignified life is unattainable for a large number of citizens. Growing social inequality with the passivity of the authorities leads to a greater social crisis, which ultimately threatens the stability of BiH. The question is how important humanity and empathy are in relation to filling the budget.
