The Indirect Taxation Authority of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ITA BiH) fully supports the abolition of VAT on donated food, and will make its necessary contribution to the process of changing the current rules, said the Director of the ITA BiH Miro Dzakula.
In Banja Luka, Dzakula met with the head of the SDP Deputies’ Caucus in the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliament, Sasa Magazinovic, who described the current situation as paradoxical because, as he said, those who donate food are being “punished”.
Magazinovic explained that it is financially more profitable to destroy food (about 5 percent of the value of the food is paid) than to donate it (17 percent of VAT is paid).
The interlocutors assessed that intervention in the law can result in very positive effects, from which, in addition to the users of soup kitchens who are a priority, businessmen who today pay 17 percent of the tax on donated food, as well as the budgets of local communities, from which, as a rule, the largest funds for the operation of soup kitchens are allocated.
Magazinovic informed Dzakula about the current course of parliamentary activities, and the text of the law itself, on which agreement has been reached yesterday. He emphasized that the plan is for the signatories of this law to be all interested delegates and that this is an issue on which the unity and cooperation of all political parties should be demonstrated.
He assessed as positive the activities of the Mozaik Foundation, which initiated the changes to the law, as well as the positive reaction of the delegates and the willingness to work together.
One of the topics of the meeting was the amendments to the Rulebook on the implementation of the VAT Law, the amendment of which should also follow the proposed amendment to the law and define the transparent implementation of the process of exempting donated food from VAT.
Dzakula tasked his associates to prepare amendments to the Rulebook as soon as possible so that after the adoption of the law, ITA BiH would be ready to implement the law, ensuring the expected transparency and control of the process.
E.Dz.
