Multimillion-dollar amounts collected from tolls remain unused in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The reason, as for all other problems in the country, is the different views of the entities on the method of distribution. It is absurd that such large sums of money stand, while our country has only 200 kilometers of highway.
In a special sub-account of the Central Bank for more than three years, 144 million marks were collected from tolls that were not distributed. The Indirect Taxation Authority Management Board cannot agree on their redistribution, because the representatives of the entities are not satisfied with the agreed corresponding percentages.
“The funds are distributed on the basis of an interim decision, and with that decision 59% is distributed to the Federation, 39% to the Republika Srpska, and 2% to the Brcko District, according to Ratko Kovacevic, ITA Public Relations Manager.
The Faculty of Economics says that not everything is so simple and that the issue of distribution depends on the contribution of the entities.
“The ITA Board did not define redistribution as required by law. And in essence, the entities in some way challenge this decision, arguing that the funds were allocated from the entities to a much greater extent than the distribution. The Federation leads, contributions between 80-85%,” says Kadija Jahic, economic analyst.
In the meantime, new levies have appeared due to unallocated money. Namely, the Central Bank BiH has determined new, higher fees for its services. The ITA has received the calculation of the fee for keeping deposit accounts, for May of the current year of a little more than 11 thousand and for June almost 13 thousand marks, which costs the citizens of this country 144,000 marks annually. The CB refers to the Decision on determining the tariff fee, which is applied from May 1, 2021.
“The introduction of the new decision is due to the fact that the European CB introduced negative rates on euro deposits in 2014. Since the CB BiH works under the currency board arrangement, it invests its foreign exchange reserves in the euro area market and is exposed to market interest rates,” said Emina Ceman, Head of the Banking Department.
