At today’s session, the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina unanimously adopted the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Value Added Tax, proposed by the House of Representatives of the State Parliament.
At the last session, the House of Representatives, following an urgent procedure, adopted the proposed law abolishing the payment of tax on donated food, which was jointly proposed by 15 deputies in that House.
In the explanation of the law, it is stated that a large number of companies in BiH, which are involved in the production or trade of food products, are discouraged from donating food in larger quantities, since donating food creates an additional financial obligation to pay VAT. Because of this, large amounts of food are destroyed instead of providing a meal for vulnerable categories of the population.
The proposed law specifies that the Management Board of the Indirect Taxation Authority is obliged to pass a by-law for its implementation within 60 days from the date of entry into force of this law.
MP in the House of Representatives, who is one of the proponents of this legal solution, Saša Magazinović, said that the law represents a human and not a political issue, because food in the amount of 130 million BAM is thrown away annually in Bosnia and Herzegovina, because in In Bosnia and Herzegovina, there is VAT, which is also paid on donations to soup kitchens.
“Translated into the amount of food per day, that’s more than 700,000 meals a day that are thrown away. From an economic point of view, any company that annually donates a million BAM of food, and believe me there are many who do this despite this, be” “punished” with a tax of 170,000 on the food they donatee, Magazinović stated.
He pointed out that the proponents of the law worked in full cooperation with the Administration for Indirect Taxation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and this law also fulfills the international obligation from the sustainable development goals of the United Nations, which foresees a 50 percent reduction in wasted food by 2030.
He said that the Directorate for European Integration also gave a positive opinion, indicating that there is no European directive that directly regulates this area, but that there are recommendations, and with the adoption of this law BiH is approaching European countries where VAT is not paid on donated food.
Delegate in the Club of Croats Zlatko Miletić (For new generations) assessed that this is a very useful and humane move, stating that 18,000 people are fed every day in 60 public kitchens in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska and Brčko District.
“More than 50 percent of these kitchens do not have enough financial resources to operate, 70 percent of them deal with additional social issues in addition to nutrition, and even 95 percent of them are unable to provide fruits and vegetables to the users of these services,” said Miletić.
The delegate of the Club of Serbs Želimir Nešković (SDS) praised this initiative of the representatives in the House of Representatives of the state parliament, and said that he would support the proposed law.
“I see that there is good will when it comes to the zero PVD rate on donated food, when it comes to amending the VAT Law and that there is a majority,” Nešković said.
