The Governing Board of the Indirect Taxation Authority (UIO) of BiH should amend the Excise Tax Act next week with the goal of protecting local breweries. This would introduce a differential excise duty on beer, depending on the level of production.
The UO UIO working group, tasked with amending the law, said that they took the proposal of the BiH Council of Ministers to introduce two rates of excise of .20 KM per liter of beer with an annual production of 400.000 hectoliters and .35 KM per liter for breweries with production above this limit.
“We refined the proposed amendments to the excise with regards to how enforceable it is, and to prescribe the exact mechanisms of proving the level of production in order to eliminate possible abuse’’, said Vladimir Trifković, member of UO UIO, who also participated in reworking the law.
Trifković said that in UO UIO they would adopt the proposed legislation by next week, after which it would enter into parliamentary procedures. It was found out later that the UO UIO session would be held next week, probably on 15 March.
The group BiH Producers of Beer expressed their hope that the relevant institutions would adopt legislation as soon as possible so that, by using the European experience, they would finally be protected from the deluge of strong import competition.
The practice of the European Union, in specifically treating ‘small independent brewery’, with an annual production of 200.000 hectoliters, gives members the opportunity to introduce their lower excise duty than the standard.
Edin Ibrahimpašić, the President of “Bihać Brewery’’, denies the speculation that BiH, by determining the excise demarcation at a ‘high’ 400.000 hectoliters, which corresponds to local breweries due to low production, would violate the Association and Stabilization Agreement with the EU.
“The EU has made an exception by raising the limit to 300.000 hectoliters in Portugal, so I do not know why BiH should not have 400.000, since it is not yet a member of the EU. When we enter the EU, then we could fully adopt to their regulations, but not before accession’’, said Ibrahimpašić.
