In the continuation of the fifth session, the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted the Framework Budget Document for the period 2023-2025 and determined the Draft Law on the budget for this year in the amount of 1,315,400,000 BAM, confirmed to journalists after the session chairperson of the Council of Ministers of BiH, Borjana Krišto, who said that the Framework Budget Document for the institutions of BiH for the period 2023 – 2025 has been adopted and that it was harmonized with the Global Fiscal Framework for the said period.
According to her, the entity governments proposed, that is, their parliaments adopted a budget without a fiscal framework, and “we at the BiH level should have adopted the Global Fiscal Framework first so that based on that Global Fiscal Framework, we would adopt this Framework Budget document and then based on that passed the budget and necessary decisions for the functioning of the BiH institutions in 2023”.
“This budget that we adopted today, i.e. its framework, amounts to 1,315,400,000 BAM, which is an increase of 23 percent, i.e. 241.8 million BAM compared to the budget of the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2022,” stated Krišto.
According to her, with this budget proposal, the expenditures are the same, they are at the level of coverage, and nothing is left uncovered.
“With the draft budget for 2023, we prioritize the continuation of reforms related to meeting the conditions for European partnership, i.e. the implementation of the Stabilization and Association Agreement. The budget is adapted to the work programs of the ministries, especially the Ministry of Defense of BiH, which is a large budget user, and other ministries and institutions, as well as a certain part of the funds that are directed to multi-year capital allocations for financing capital projects of budgetary users,” stated Krišto.
According to her, part of the budgetary resources is intended to improve the social and material status of employees in BiH institutions. Among other things, it includes an increase in the base from 535 KM to 600 KM for the next nine months in 2023, and an increase in the holiday allowance from 300 KM to 450 KM.
“As part of the overall budget, funds are also planned, which are part of the budget of the institutions and for servicing the external debt,” stated Krišto.
She expressed satisfaction that they managed to agree on many things in a relatively short period of time in order to arrive at the draft of this document today.
“The Council of Ministers tasked the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of BiH to send this budget proposal to the competent institutions, the Presidency of BiH as the proposer which sends this budget proposal to the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, which ultimately adopts this document,” concluded Krišto, Fena reports.
Previously, the Framework Budget Document of the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the period 2023 – 2025 was unanimously adopted, harmonized with the Global Framework of the Fiscal Balance and Policies in BiH for this period, which was adopted by the Fiscal Council of BiH at the beginning of last week – it was announced from Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Total revenues, receipts and financing of institutions of BiH within the budget for 2023 amount to 1,315,400,000.00 BAM, which is an increase of 241.8 million BAM compared to the budget of institutions of BiH for 2022.
Revenues from indirect taxes are planned in the amount of 1,020,500,000.00 BAM and have been increased by about 155 million BAM or 18 percent compared to the budget for 2022.
Other sources of financing are non-tax revenues of the institutions of BiH in the amount of 152,118,000.00 BAM, dedicated funds for financing the institutions of BiH in the amount of 692,000.00 BAM, transferred surplus funds from the previous year in the amount of 141,100,000.00 BAM and proceeds from the sale of fixed assets in the amount of 990,000.00 BAM.
The total expenditures of BiH institutions amount to 1,315,400,000.00 BAM and are higher by 23 percent compared to the previous year, while servicing the external debt of BiH amounts to 1,245,966,362.00 BAM, which is an increase of 426,777,243.00 BAM compared to the budget from the previous year.
Thus, the total expenditures of BiH institutions and the servicing of the external debt of BiH in the budget for 2023 amount to 2,561,366,362.00 BAM and are higher by 668,577,243.00 BAM compared to 2022.
The draft budget for 2023 prioritizes the continuation of reforms related to meeting the conditions for the European Partnership, the implementation of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA), contributing to the programs and activities of the Ministry of Defense and other relevant ministries and institutions of BiH resulting from the Partnership for Peace program ( PfP) and other types of cooperation with NATO.
At the same time, budget funds are directed to the implementation of multi-year projects of budget users, as well as to the improvement of the social and material status of employees in BiH institutions.
Adopted decisions on the base for salary and vacation for 2023.
At the proposal of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury, the Decision on the amount of the basis for salary calculation for employees in the institutions of BiH for the year 2023 in the amount of 600.00 BAM and the Decision on the amount of vacation allowance in the institutions of BiH for the year 2023 in the amount of 450.00 BAM were adopted. , compared to BAM 300.00 in previous years.
The basis for salary calculation has been increased compared to 2022, when it was 535.00 BAM, and will be applied next month from the day of adoption of the budget of the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2023.
By increasing the base salary, the demands of the representative trade unions in the institutions of BiH, which requested its increase to 630.00 BAM, were partly respected.
The statement states that the BiH Council of Ministers, by increasing the base and recourse, follows the measures taken by the authorities at lower levels of government, with the aim of improving the financial position of employees due to the general trend of price growth.
At the session, the Decision on amendments and additions to the Decision on the method and procedure for exercising the rights of employees in BiH institutions to accommodation costs, compensation for separate living and compensation for temporary deployment, proposed by the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of BiH, was adopted.
In this way, among others, all employees in institutions exercising the right to compensation for accommodation costs are determined uniformly, and in certain percentages of the salary calculation base, instead of as it was previously expressed in absolute amounts that need to be changed after the change of the calculation base wages, it is stated in the announcement.
