In November and December, the Sarajevo Canton Government will subsidize heating costs for 43,000 citizens from the most vulnerable categories of the population.
Approximately 39,000 citizens who receive the minimum pension, 2,500 social assistance beneficiaries and 1,500 veterans will receive subsidies.
The Prime Minister of the Sarajevo Canton, Edin Forto, pointed out that the mentioned categories will receive help in order to overcome the winter and be able to pay for heating.
As he said, the CS Government, in coordination with the Directorate for Commodity Reserves, has procured significant quantities of heating oil and fuel oil in the event of a gas supply interruption.
“A particularly important message is that hospitals, health institutions, schools, and social welfare institutions have no reason to worry in the coming winter because they will be provided with heating in every possible scenario,” Forto emphasized.
He pointed out that the Government is in permanent session, and that it will adopt other measures during the heating season, if necessary.
The Minister of Labor, Social Policy, Displaced Persons and Refugees of the Canton of Sarajevo, Ivana Prvulović, clarified that in the Canton of Sarajevo, the Decree on subsidizing heating costs is in force, which refers to the most vulnerable categories of the population.
“The Ministry is preparing instructions, and for November and December, this category of the population will receive subsidies of 100 BAM each. These funds have been provided by the Ministry. Today, the government agreed that the subsidy will include pensioners who receive the lowest pension, about 39,000 of them, and then beneficiaries allowances for assistance and care from another person, namely persons over the age of 65. We considered that persons of the third age are the most vulnerable and decided to support them at this time. It is important to note that within the department of this ministry we will also provide additional funds for social protection institutions,” explained Prvulović.
CS Minister of Veteran Affairs Omer Osmanović reminded that previously only firewood was subsidized for the veteran population, but that this year the law was changed, and subsidies for all types of heating were enabled, for which 600,000 BAM was provided.
“In the past years, there were only about 500 users of subsidies, and this year there will be about 1,500 members of the veteran population. The public invitation has already been announced, and one of the main conditions is that those who did not receive the so-called one-time assistance for social needs receive the subsidy This year, we have already distributed a record 4,200 one-time grants and we will continue to distribute them until the end of the year. For the sake of comparison, in the whole of last year we had 3,600,” said Osmanović, explaining that the public call was announced a few days ago, on September 19 and to last two weeks.
The Minister of Communal Economy, Infrastructure, Spatial Planning, Construction and Environmental Protection of CS Enver Hadžiahmetović stated that the Ministry has started planning activities related to the supply of heating to the citizens of CS this season.
“We used all our capacities for the companies Toplane and Bags-Energotehnika to replenish their capacities, and they stockpiled certain quantities of alternative energy sources, primarily fuel oil and fuel oil. It is very important that at this moment we have sufficient quantities of fuel oil and fuel oil for eventual disappearance, i.e. blockage of gas deliveries to CS. We have the possibility for these companies to work in this way for approximately one and a half months,” said Minister Hadžiahmetović, and added that the Ministry he heads has decided to give those persons who previously received a subsidy for replacement solid fuel stoves, of which there are 360, now also receive subsidies for pellets.
