As of today, electricity bills are 10.4 percent higher in most parts of the Federation. This is the result of the request of Elektroprivreda Bosnia and Herzegovina sent to FERK, which adopted it at the session on June 28. While the Government of the Federation announces subsidies for certain categories, the citizens are indignant. The profession warns that there will be chain price increases, and that more expensive electricity will not solve the problems of Elektroprivreda Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Times will, by all accounts, be more difficult because the 10.4 percent increase in the price of electricity, learned from earlier experiences, is seen by citizens as a prelude to new price increases for other services.
In order to mitigate to some extent the impact that the rise in electricity prices will bring, the Government of the Federation has decided to extend until June 30, 2025, the deadline for subsidizing the price of electricity for the most vulnerable categories – beneficiaries of permanent cash assistance, pensioners with the lowest pension and other citizens who have minimum income.
The profession vividly describes the measure of the Government of the Federation as putting out a fire.
“It’s a small help. When you are in trouble, any help is welcome, but that does not solve the systemic problems of the life and work of people and legal entities in BiH”, says Željko Šain, professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Sarajevo.
Šain believes that increasing the price of electricity will not solve the problems of Elektroprivreda BiH because, according to him, no one has seriously dealt with the problems of the electricity sector since the war until now. It does not exclude the possibility of chain price increases for goods and services.
“We did not solve the issue of BiH’s energy independence professionally, but used old elements and resources to use what others built. “No government has seriously addressed this issue, and this is just a patchwork of holes and omissions in the economic policy of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” points out Šain.
Please note, the increase in electricity prices for citizens by 10.4 percent and other users by 8.1 percent was adopted by the Regulatory Commission for Energy of the Federation of BiH on the third attempt, at the session held on June 28. Not long after that, a press conference of Elektroprivreda BiH was held, where the company’s financial report for 2023 was presented, and EPBiH’s record loss of 331 million marks was announced to the public, Federalna writes.
