Republika Srpska Finance Minister Zora Vidović stated that this entity will not go bankrupt and that all debts due will be settled.
“More than 330 million marks on the basis of bonds on the Vienna Stock Exchange will be due at the end of next month, and this money is planned in the budget, so the payment cannot be questioned,” confirmed Zora Vidović for RTRS.
She added that all this “inaccurate information is deliberately placed in order to create the worst possible environment in the Republika Srpska, to introduce unrest among people, to reduce consumption, and the economic environment also feels this because investors are faced with a dilemma whether to invest. ”
330 million BAM is due for bonds placed on the Vienna Stock Exchange, and Vidović says that the RS has the money to repay that debt, because it did not arise all of a sudden, stating that in 2018, a bond of that value was sold on that stock exchange.
“We knew that they were due exactly on June 28, 2023, and of course we planned with the budget and all decisions that these funds would be returned on time,” Vidović said, adding that the RS repays every debt properly, without delay.
She mentioned that she also told the representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), who were interested in whether the RS would be able to pay it off, that the RS would not go bankrupt, but that it would fulfill its obligations.
Vidović emphasized that Republika Srpska will continue to function, to pay its obligations, and a lot of work will be done on investments, as they are the key to everything, reports Srna.
At the end, she said that “Republika Srpska has a people who love it and it certainly cannot fail.”
We will remind you that the authorities in the RS have been intensively trying to find new creditors in recent months in order to ensure the liquidity of the institutions.
This year alone, RS has debts worth more than one billion marks, which is almost a fifth of the entire budget of this BiH. entities, Klix.ba reports.
Rumors are getting louder that Republika Srpska is over-indebted and that this year it will have debts worth more than one billion marks, which is almost a fifth of the budget. New debts of up to one billion BAM are also planned. The authorities in Republika Srpska, although they have been intensively trying to find creditors in recent months around the world, claim that this entity is not over-indebted and that it responsibly manages its public finances.
Republika Srpska is looking for money everywhere. During his recent visit to China, Prime Minister Radovan Višković, among other things, discussed new responsibilities. Some believe that Chinese loans were the main reason for his trip. Al Jazeera correspondent from Washington, Ivica Puljić, in a statement for FACE television, said that the President of the RS Milorad Dodik asked Viktor Orban for half a billion euros, but that the Hungarians refused this request.
“Dodik requested 500 million euros from the OTP bank in Budapest, Hungary. He was rejected. They thanked me politely and said that they refused, that they could not do it”.
The opposition believes that the government in the RS has been borrowing uncontrollably for years and that it could soon find itself in big problems because of this.
“Republika Srpska is on the verge of financial collapse, despite the increase in VAT and tax collection revenues. There’s no telling how much money they can spend. The bubble that is about to burst could explode this summer or fall”, Nebojsa Vukanovic, president of the List for Justice and Order, said.
All stories about enormous indebtedness are spins and misleading the public. RS manages its public finances responsibly and is not over-indebted, claims Prime Minister Radovan Višković.
“We currently have public and total debt significantly below the criteria prescribed by international and world standards. “I don’t know why there is so much talk about these things as if someone is committing a crime against their own people,” Višković said.
Economist Zoran Pavlović points out that the practice of returning old debts to new liabilities is widespread around the world. The bigger problem, he adds, is what the loans are spent on.
“We need to be very careful and somehow slow down capital investments, and invest much more in agriculture and the real sector that can export products from BiH”.
Who is in charge, the opposition that claims that RS is on the verge of financial collapse or the government that says that debt servicing is out of the question will be known very soon, more precisely on June 28, when the debt of 330 million BAM, created on the basis of the issue of bonds on the Vienna Stock Exchange, comes due five years ago.
Vice-President of the Party of Democratic Progress Igor Crnadak spoke about indebtedness on the securities market of the entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Republika Srpska (RS) entity, pointing out that the debts are due on June 28th.
Yesterday, the National Assembly of the RS (NARS) considered the report of the Commission for Securities of the RS for the year 2021.
The report stated that the total turnover on the Banja Luka Stock Exchange in 2021 was 377.8 million BAM.
“Just this year, we borrowed 600 million BAM on the London Stock Exchange. In total, we will return 750 million. All of this was done in conditions where our environment and the image of the RS were assessed as speculative and risky,” said Crnadakyesterday, speaking on behalf of the Caucus of PDP deputies.
He pointed out that the RS has a B3 rating and that the PDP never received information about who bought the bonds and who will earn 150 million BAM in earnings.
Also, he said that the Government of RS does not offer citizens the option to buy bonds.
“Then they come to the Assembly and ask us why citizens don’t buy bonds, and the reason why it will be a problem is because we are a system in which there were various cases and it continued with Bobar and Balkan Bank, Bank Srpske where people lost all of their money by collapsing’ banks,” emphasized Crnadak.
He also commented on the material that was delivered to the deputies and pointed out that the Securities Commission of the RS is certainly the best and most impartial regulator.
He also pointed out that the Government of the RS is “hiding so that they can continue their business in murky water”.
“We had a discussion around June 28th, but this year, RS cannot look forward to Vidovdan. By then, RS needs to return 330 million BAM. When the finance minister was there, she said that we have money, but not in the account. Oh but it is possible to see government working when there is no control,” said the PDP leader.
He also told the members of the NARS that he had found a document for the debt that RS owes since the public is wondering what will happen if the debt is not paid.
“Bond holders have the right to confiscate any company that has more than 50 percent ownership by RS in its ownership structure,” Crnadak explained
