Fuel prices at individual gas stations across Bosnia and Herzegovina have reached a record 3.99 BAM per liter, putting additional pressure on already strained household budgets and raising concerns about another wave of price increases for goods and services.
A liter of diesel has increased by around one mark since July. For many drivers, filling a standard fuel tank now costs close to 200 BAM, while higher transport costs are expected to further affect the prices of other products and services.
Despite the continued rise in fuel prices, authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina have taken limited measures to ease the burden on citizens. The only measure currently in force is the Republika Srpska Government’s decision to refund 10 fenings of excise duty per liter of fuel, although the measure is not applied at all gas stations.
Consumer association “Don” president Murisa Marić said other countries had introduced measures to protect consumers from the impact of rising energy and fuel prices.
“Adequate measures have been taken by other countries, we could have transferred at least part of it to our country in order to have any kind of protection, but this is not visible in our country. Everything becomes more expensive by inertia, every new purchase of goods has higher prices, as if they had nothing in stock,” Marić said.
Rising fuel prices are also affecting businesses, particularly companies dependent on transportation and imported goods.
Ognjen Petrović of Banja Luka-based company “Elektronika” said higher fuel costs were already being reflected in business operations.
“Fuel prices have an effect, that’s inevitable and we feel it, and prices will go up, because there is no other choice. We mostly work with imported goods and there the prices of transport are higher than those of goods,” Petrović said.
Excise duties, tolls and VAT account for up to 40 percent of the fuel price structure, or approximately 1.40 KM per liter. Authorities could reduce or temporarily suspend some of these levies, but no such broader measure has been introduced.
Economic analyst Svetlana Cenić warned that higher prices also generate greater budget revenues through taxes and other levies.
“The higher the prices, the higher the income in the budget. Whenever they talk about the slowdown of inflation, they forget that it is inflation after inflation. If now it is not five but three percent inflation, they forget that prices have not returned and that this is an addition to the previous inflation,” Cenić said.
With fuel prices continuing to rise, citizens and businesses are facing the prospect of further increases in the prices of food, transport and other goods and services.
While prices increasingly approach European levels, household incomes remain significantly lower, leaving citizens to bear much of the impact of rising living costs.
