Ahead of April 1, the news that Bosnia and Herzegovina is still without a budget for this year is, however, not an appropriate joke. Nor is it a joke. Although there was talk of a harmonized text, it did not reach the Council of Ministers. In the meantime, the decision on temporary financing also expires. While its extension is expected, the date of the adoption of the budget is still unknown. The question arises: are the authorities joking with the citizens?
After temporary funding, temporary again. This is obviously the fate of the budget of the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina for April, if it is also adopted.
Although the deadline was until the end of December, the authorities ran until April without an adopted budget. The relevant ministry explains that according to the instructions, the budget users had to fill in their funding proposals because the budget for this year will be higher by 40 million marks, because in the meantime the Global Fiscal Balance Framework was adopted. User data submitted in February.
“The Ministry of Finance and Treasury of Bosnia and Herzegovina is currently working on the analysis of requests from budget users in accordance with the amendment to the Instruction,” the Ministry stated.
The budget itself amounts to almost one billion and 356 million marks, and it remained on the sidelines because the European story of Bosnia and Herzegovina was in focus for months. There are harsh criticisms from the opposition.
DŽENAN ĐONLAGIĆ, delegate of the Club of the Bosniak People in the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH (DF)
“The current government, therefore, has not adopted the budget of the BiH institutions for 2024 and no one is talking about it. We are entering the month of April, and BiH does not have a regular budget for this year, it is not even in the draft in the Council of Ministers of BiH”.
ZLATKO MILETIĆ, delegate of the Club of the Croatian People in the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH (ZNG)
“With regard to the distribution of collected revenues from the Indirect Taxation Administration, and last year was a record, it collected 10.6 million marks in revenue from citizens, it is probably being worked on and we have a problem of how to distribute the money that is currently in the account and obviously there it’s about political trading”.
Besides the distribution of money, there is another problem in the announcement – the local elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina are getting closer. The decision on the tender should be made at the beginning of May.
ŠEFIK DŽAFEROVIĆ, delegate of the Bosniak People’s Club in the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH (SDA)
“It would not be appropriate if the budget and the decisions about whether funds are to be given through the budget or not, again call the elections into question”.
MARINA PENDES, delegate of the Club of the Croatian People in the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH (HDZBiH)
“We will have a decision on temporary financing, and after that the Council of Ministers, that is, the Minister of Finance, will have to provide certain funds because it is clear how local elections are held”.
The SNSD state that this happened because the partners in the state government do not talk. And that this serious talk about money was reduced to populism.
NIKOLA ŠPIRIĆ, Deputy Speaker of the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly (SNSD)
“The budget is already late, I don’t know if it will be late again, and we will discuss the budget promptly when it comes to the House of People”.
BRANISLAV BORENOVIĆ, PDP representative in the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH
“As a parliamentarian, I can’t wait to see if there are tens of millions of marks inside for some new acquisitions and some new buildings”.
Therefore, the conclusion suggests itself. The non-adoption of the budget is not of a financial but of a political nature. Its adoption depends on political interests, not on the real needs of budget users, BHRT writes.
