The proposal of the amendment of the Law on allocation and directing a part of the company’s income realized by using hydro-accumulation facilities, whose proponents were deputies Petar Galic and Ante Bakovic, was supported by a shortened procedure yesterday at the session of the House of Representatives of the Federal Parliament.
As the proponents explained, there is an interest of all citizens of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) in amendingthe current law in this area, especially those in whose municipalities there are hydro-accumulation energy facilities.
The current laws prescribe allocations to municipalities that are exclusively related to the amount of electricity produced or water used, while the most important factor, submerged land, is not valued at all, as Galic and Bakovic noted.
As they further explained, this particularly affects the city of Livno and the municipality of Tomislavgrad, in whose area the facilities of the Orlovac hydropower system were built. In this case, the construction of dams and embankments, huge arable land of Livanjsko polje and Busko blato were turned into hydro-accumulations Busko lake and the compensation pool Lipa. Water from these reservoirs is used for electricity production at the Orlovac hydropower plant in the Republic of Croatia.
The special feature of hydropower plant Orlovac, when compared to other hydropower plants in the FBiH, is the small production of electricity in relation to the area occupied by hydro-accumulation.
“We believe that the existing fee for the use of Busko lake paid by Hrvatska Elektroprivreda (HEP group) of the Republic of Croatia is insufficient and negligible in relation to 5.600 hectares of submerged arable land, and the valuation of that area would at least partially compensate for the impossibility of use for agricultural and other purposes. By adopting the amendment to the law, primarily, it would be possible to pay a fairer fee to the city of Livno and the municipality of Tomislavgrad from HEP group as the owner of these facilities, and at the same time all local government units (cities and municipalities) in the FBiH where hydro-accumulation facilities are built, would get the minimum amount of fee, ” it was emphasized in the explanation by the proponents of the act, deputies Galic and Bakovic.
According to their proposal, the annual amount of compensation cannot be less than 1.500 BAM per hectare of the area flooded by the hydro-accumulation.
In order for the proposed law to enter into force, it should be accepted by the House of Peoples, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
