Cantonal Administration for Inspection Affairs of the Canton Sarajevo issued a Decision to hookah bars in the area of CS to remove hookah offer from their restaurants and catering facilities because these activities are not specified in their permits for work. The deadline for execution of the decision is 30 days.
The problem is that hookah is the primary business of hookah bars and by removing it, owners would experience a great loss, and employees would lose their jobs. Only in the area of CS work 110 hookah bars and more than 500 people is employed in them. For absurd to be even bigger, the Law on Hospitality Industry does not even recognize the hookah as activity or as a term, but the owners of the cafes are paying taxes for the sale of this service, as well as enormously high excise tax on tobacco.
“The Decision of the inspection said that they want to abolish hookah bars because there is no activity recorded in our permits to work, and the activity does not exist in the law. We agree to establish the legal conditions – for example special ventilation, that minors are not allowed to smoke hookah etc., and when we fill that out, special commission should be determine to check if we can work or not. But they just came and said that it will be abolished, without any legal basis,” said the representative of all 110 hookah bars in CS, who wanted to stay anonymous.
He emphasized that CS supports employers with various incentives, but that the state charges are big, and they pay excise duty of 89 BAM for 200 grams of cut tobacco, although this is the amount of excise on one kilogram.
On comments that the hookah is also unhealthy, he said that all hookah bars have to give the sample of tobacco and flavors to Sanitary Inspection, which conducted an analysis and found that there is nothing harmful in the content.
“We do not give hookah to minors and adults can decide for themselves, no one is forcing anyone. I was smoking hookah for 13 years and nothing ever happened. But if the hookah is harmful and should be abolished, what about alcohol, cigarettes, etc.”, he emphasized.
The owners of hookah bars will certainly file an appeal, and ask the authorities of CS to find a solution to this problem and do make the amendments to the law that would recognize this activity, so they would not go through this nightmare again.
(Source: M. N./Klix.ba)