After the meeting with petroleum distributors in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) on Tuesday, country’s federal trade minister Zlatan Vujanovic said he expects fuel prices to be lowered in parts of the country in the next few days.
The urgent meeting held in Mostar, some 130 kilometers southwest of the capital Sarajevo, was a result of dissatisfaction of BiH drivers who blocked the entrances to key highways and intersections of major BiH cities last days to protest the third rise in prices of fuel this year.
The participants of the meeting analyzed all available modalities in accordance with BiH law, with an aim of finding and urgently implementing specific measures to reduce the retail price of petroleum products.
Vujanovic confirmed that petroleum distributors’ requirements have been reached at the meeting and that fuel prices will be lowered for at least five fenings, as of Wednesday or the end of the week, latest.
He said that a hundred requests from distributors in Federation of BiH, one of the entities, to lower the fuel prices have already been received, adding that if distributors do not manage to decrease the price,“ the government can introduce marginal limits and intervene in prices”.
The first increase of retail prices of gasoline and diesel happened on Feb.1, 2018 when BiH government decided to raise retail prices of gasoline and diesel, including additional0.18 KM of value-added tax.
The first increase in prices of gasoline and diesel was a condition given by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to approve an extended financial arrangement of 148.4 million KM (89.15 million U.S. dollars) to BiH at the beginning of 2018.
After two additional increase in fuel prices, BiH citizens currently pay average 2.36 KM for gasoline and 2.31 KM for diesel per liter, making BiH no longer a country with the cheapest fuel in the region. Enditem (1 U.S. dollar = 1.66 KM)
