As of yesterday, the margins for at least 50 food products in the Republika Srpska (RS) have been removed. This means that citizens will pay less for milk and dairy products, jams, meat and meat products, baby food, and personal hygiene products. It is a campaign that includes producers and suppliers, as well as retailers to give up their margins, and thus make everyday life easier for citizens, due to the impact of inflation and daily price increases. The Minister of Trade and Tourism of the RS, Denis Sulic (SNSD), stated that an attempt was made to do the same with medicine, but that it is on hold for now.
Starting this week, some items in at least 22 trading companies will be much cheaper. So far, 19 manufacturers have joined the “Socially Responsible” campaign, as well as four distributors of these products. In addition to 50 products that are completely free of margins, there will be several hundred products on sale with partially reduced margins.
“During the week, in all markets throughout the RS, you will be able to find items with a zero percent margin, as well as products that will be part of the ‘Socially Responsible’ campaign, and which will be part of the partially reduced margin – and they will also be marked,” Minister Sulic pointed out.
As he said, the campaign will last until December 31st, but there will be discussions about its continuation. In addition to the products, the markets that joined the campaign will also be marked. However, the bakers did not give up the margin, so the Government of the RS had a new measure.
“Because we don’t have bakers today, we have a request from the President of the Government of the RS to grind and distribute from the intervention procurements through the Red Cross and centers for social work, to make it easier for the most socially vulnerable families,” said Minister Sulic.
He says that so far there have been discussions about limiting margins on medicine, but without any concrete and official decisions. However, he adds that, regardless of the numerous proposals and initiatives to abolish or reduce the VAT on medicine, that issue is at the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), and at that level, according to him, the topic ceases to be vital and therefore goes into the sphere of political activity and conditioning.
