Numerous price increases and low incomes have made life much more difficult for the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, it is not only life that costs more, death is also more expensive. Regardless of religious commitment, you cannot go underground without a minimum of one and a half thousand marks.
Carefree times in old age are a wish for pensioners in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They spend the autumn of their lives fighting for bare existence. There is no money for life, let alone for death, for which they prepare not only with religious ceremonies, but also with long-term savings and installments.
“Now it’s easier to get married than to die. You take a girl to a coffee shop where the cheapest coffee is available and then you die… You have to save for years and years.”
The era of price increases did not bypass either joy or sorrow. The prices show that even death comes as a luxury here. Just for the grave site and its excavation at the city cemetery in Bihać, it is necessary to allocate from 613 to 914 marks, and the other costs are yet to come.
HUSEIN ĐUZELIĆ, funeral service of the Islamic Community from Bihać
“Members of the Majlis IC have benefits when a death occurs to pay the minimum. Roughly we can say that the average costs about 650 BAM, equipment, posters, transport, tabut (coffin) canvas… That’s about 650 BAM.”
Costs also depend on the denomination. The price of the crates ranges from 400 to more than two thousand marks, and the best-selling ones from 700 to 900 BAM.
IVAN TUČIĆ, pastor of Bihać
“The annual membership fee for the cemetery in Žegar is 50 BAM, and for the others it is 30. That is what members, families who want to have a burial place there, are obliged to pay annually. When the deceased dies, the ceremony itself costs an additional 100 BAM.”
Considering that the material is mostly imported from India, the tombstones are not cheap at all. Almost 1,500 BAM should be allocated for the cheapest one.
BOZO BALEN, an employee of a stone-cutting shop
“It takes a lot of money, that’s the first thing. It all depends on what someone wants from the material, what color, all that plays a role. One of the cheapest are is 300 BAM. Well, as they get bigger, the prices go up. If they go with with dark materials, the price is also dark.”
In addition to grief, the closest ones are left with the cost of dying. In Bosnia and Herzegovina they rightly say – God of health. It has become expensive to live, and nothing is cheaper to die, BHRT writes.
