“FBiH fulfilled all the conditions practically a year ago. Back then, as well as now, we said that we did not do that for them, but for ourselves. It is the amount of about one billion BAM, and it represents a budgetary support. It is known that around 312 million BAM lacks from the budget of the FBiH, and last year, in the absence of IMF, we compensated it from domestic sources,” said Novalic in Mostar, where he gave a lecture on the topic “Reform Agenda: Turnaround in economic trends” to students of the University “Dzemal Bijedic”.
He added that BiH does not need the IMF just for the money, but also for technical assistance in the implementation of reforms.
“We, for example, have a problem with the Law on Pensions and Disability Insurance, and we do not have the capacity to adopt it. Then we call the IMF and World Bank to help us, as they are doing this in 170 countries and they can share their experiences with us,” said Novalic.
Asked when the citizens will feel benefits of the Reform Agenda in everyday life, the Prime Minister said that it is a long process, but that it is already giving results.
“Reform Agenda includes reforms that should result in economic growth. Last year we had a growth of 2.9 %, and this year the growth will be about 4 %. The period of one year is too short, but when you add up all the growth in 4 years, these 15 % of economic growth will certainly be felt in the daily lives of our citizens,” said optimistic Prime Minister Novalic.
When it comes to amendments to the Law on games of chance, the Prime Minister said that this issue will be soon in the Government, and most likely by the end of the month.
“When it comes to aggressive taxation of games of chance, increase of revenues is not a primary thing, although it can be useful. Simply, games of chance are a social phenomenon that is not desirable and we would not complain if, due to aggressive taxation, it would result in decreased revenues and even decline in the number of employees at the organizers of games of chance,” concluded Novalic.
(Source: Radiosarajevo.ba)