After the unpleasant experience of the citizens of Slovenia, who on Sunday faced fuel shortages across the country, a logical question arises – can an identical scenario happen in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
Excess revenue
Given the absence of any reaction, the authorities impose an even more logical answer – yes, the chaotic situation on the market and the passivity of the entities and the state could leave us without oil and gasoline.
”Something even worse can happen here because we have nothing – no refinery, no reserves, so what remains in the environment will be placed in BiH. At the moment, our traders need to provide 110.000 BAM for one fuel tank in order to earn 500 BAM,” Milenko Boskovic, president of the Association of Traders of Petroleum Products of Federation of BiH (FBiH), told.
The authorities are persistently reluctant to give up the excess income from fuel prices, the “ceiling” of which no one wants to predict, and under which citizens are grumbling. With a liter of fuel that costs about 3.50 BAM, the state collects half a mark of VAT, and the price is burdened with excises for which the government uses all mechanisms to avoid their temporary abolition.
”They will dissolve the Parliament without doing so. I don’t know how long will this take. There is a saying in Dalmatia: ”Wishing to teach his donkey not to eat, a pedant did not offerhim any food. When the donkey died of hunger, he said:‘I’ve had a great loss. Just when he had learned not to eat, he died.‘ So, “those who fill the budget” will “die” or will go abroad,” Boskovic pointed out.
Hermedin Zornic, President of the Management Board of the FBiH Terminal, confirmed that the fuel stocks in the oil terminals in Zivinice are a drop of water in the sea.
”A barrel of oil in 2012 was much more expensive compared to the current $120, and a liter of diesel for the end user in the FBiH was 2.45 BAM. What is this now, is it inflated, does the law on free pricing give someone the right to make margins of 300 percent? We do not have stocks even close to those we need and given to us by the European Union (EU) Council Directive, but it is not that we have nothing. We could be ready for a month or two, but what’s next, that’s the problem,” Zornic warned.
Everyone reacted
All countries in the region, where salaries are higher, have already intervened in this area, so BiH currently has the most expensive fuel.
In the meantime, BiH politicians are sitting quietly and waiting for up to a billion BAM more in the election year, which is estimated to be registered compared to the previous year.
What are the stocks
According to the EU Council Directive, every member state or one that wants to become one, including BiH, must have oil supplies in quantities that are imported in 90 days or consumed in two months, depending on which amount is bigger. BiH’s obligation is to ensure that these supplies are always available in an emergency. The deadline for establishing state oil reserves is the end of this year, Avaz writes.
E.Dz.
