Saša Magazinović, an MP and Chairman of the SDP BiH deputies club in the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, stated that, according to the data available, about 400 tons of food is thrown away annually in BiH, of which more than one third, i.e., 140 tons by business entities.
“Today we are here to implement in the Parliament the noble idea of the Mozaik Foundation, which has done a large part of the work so far, and now it is up to the institutions and us politicians to do our part,” said Magazinović at the press conference on the topic “People are starving, and food is wasted – abolish the taxes on food donation”.
He explained that it is about canceling the payment of taxes for those who donate food.
“Believe it or not, we live in a country where, if you throw away food, the state rewards you, because it does not charge you VAT, but if you feed the hungry by donating food, the state fines you, because you have to pay 17 percent VAT,” explained Magazinović.
According to him, in such a situation, it is financially more worthwhile to throw food to the landfill, than to donate it to those who are in a state of need.
He says that there is no accurate data on how many people are in a state of need, but “the data used to operate is that more than half of the population is below the poverty line or on the poverty line, as poverty is defined as the existence of basic opportunities for a dignified life.”
