The constant and unstoppable growth of energy prices, as well as basic foodstuffs, worries the citizens of our country. The government in Bosnia and Herzegovina has so far been able to do much to mitigate the impact of the crisis, especially given the information on record tax collection at various levels of government, said macroeconomic analyst Faruk Hadzic.
“We can already say that in the first five months, over a billion marks were collected more than planned at various levels of various types of taxes that were to be returned to the economy and citizens. At the beginning of the year, I said that the Federation would make a historic mistake if it did not return these record tax collections to businessmen and complete the reform of the tax system, which we are waiting for maybe eight years ago when it was first announced. This is one of the measures that should help the economy to stop this strong inflationary growth, first of all, by relieving its business, then to return what is reduced by contributions as a net salary to the worker “, explains Hadzic.
In order to help the citizens, he believes, it is necessary to suspend excise duties on fuel immediately. This would not harm the state, given that there has now been a large increase in revenue. He adds that this would reduce the price of fuel by approximately 55 pfennigs by calculating the VAT with the base that was before the increase – in March-April last year.
“This would be a significant help given the current circumstances in Bosnia and Herzegovina and around the world,” Hadzic concluded.m, Federalna writes.
Prices of products and services in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) have increased by up to 14 percent in one year, according to the latest official statistics released in April. At the same time, wages remain the same, and the authorities are resorting to selective and populist measures, delaying systemic interventions that could be felt by all citizens.
Five BAM a day. That is the salary due to which the old lady Djurdja risks a communal fine in the amount of her pension of 300 BAM in order for her and her husband, who fell ill, to survive. She is in front of the main Banja Luka post office every day. Any increase in her income can mean a smaller meal.
”What am I going to do, I’m fighting as best I can. What am I going to do here as a single person, I can’t do anything. I wanted us to protest, but no one wants to,”Djurdja Andzic says.
Official data confirm the growth of the cost of living. Average wages in the entities do not cover or barely cover the costs of the average union consumer basket. Officially, prices from April rose by an average of between 11 and 14 percent in a year. Many appeals to limit taxes on energy and basic products, such as a large number of countries, make it easier for domestic decision-makers to find excuses or solutions that are more in their interest.
”You have seen that the Government of Serbia has changed the excise policy and wants to intervene socially,” states Nenad Stevandic, delegate in the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH (PABiH).
”Inflation, which we did not produce, but the big economies, by printing huge amounts of money, do not intend to stop printing,”says Snjezana Novakovic Bursac, delegate in the PABiH.
”I was most surprised by the lack of any action by the authorities to take any credible measures in this regard to protect the standard of citizens,” Mirko Sarovic, delegate in the PABiH, points out.
Elected and appointed officials do not give their own standards even at the cost of symbolic solidarity with the citizens. Benefits, high salaries, severance pay, so-called white bread.
”Most of these initiatives did not have positive support, a positive response in the parliament,” states Jasmin Duvnjak, delegate in the House of Peoples of the Federation of BiH (FBiH) Parliament.
In Djurdja’s world today, it is important to sell some vegetables in order to make ends meet by tomorrow.
”When you’re on the battlefield, a rifle hits you and you’re done, but here, this is a tough war. Here it is mentally blackmailing. You have homemade goods, you can’t sell them. And there is no life,” old lady Djurdja concludes, BHRT writes.
