The total indebtedness of the Canton of Sarajevo amounts to 540 million marks, and only last year the deficit in the budget amounted to 80 million marks.
Budget allowances, however, should not come into question. Salaries, for now, are paid regularly, as well as social benefits. This was announced by the Prime Minister of the Sarajevo Canton, Nihad Uk, and the Minister of Finance, Afan Kalamujić. The opposition sent numerous objections and criticisms to the government’s work. They say, the budget is not planned rationally.
Prime Minister Uk and Minister of Finance Kalamujić directed the blame for the deficit in the cantonal budget to one address – the FBiH Parliament. More precisely, representatives who initiated and voted for the amendment of the Law on the Allocation of Public Revenues, including representatives from their parties.
“There was an option to reduce maternity benefits, there was an option not to increase salaries in Sarajevo Canton, there was an option to also reduce subsidies for kindergartens. We did not allow that, we continued to create the budget as we started, boldly. “Unfortunately, the weighting took 97 million from us in 2023, that is, from the Canton of Sarajevo and the citizens of the Canton of Sarajevo,” said Uk.
Parliament representatives, who normally haven’t sat in Sarajevo Canton for almost 4 months, could soon find a proposal for a new model of income distribution in the Federation. Minister Kalamujić announced this. He tells the citizens not to worry and that the Government will honor its commitments. But first of all, the budget will be rebalanced. And will there be enough money in it for everyone?
“Through the rebellion, we will try to compensate part of the income in some way, that is, to soften, reduce in some way things that may not be so essential for the life of the citizens, and to deal with these three challenging years that are here,” said Minister Kalamujić.
The opposition DF announced that they will not support the budget rebalancing. They believe that they would thereby participate in saving the Government, which, as they remind, did not accept any of this party’s amendments during the creation of the budget for 2024.
“In any case, Ponder is one of the culprits. But this is something that the CS Government knew about both the previous budget and this budget for 2024. We will see what his own executions will be like. It is devastating that the CS Assembly, we representatives, and especially those of us who come from the opposition, get information about these things from the media,” said DF’s Vedrana Vujović, a representative in the CS Assembly.
Criticism of the government’s work was directed by the Cantonal Committee of the Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina. They say – in order for the government to buy social peace, it has to give up other things, namely investments.
“They don’t understand one thing. A budget is not a bunch of money that someone gives you, so you spend it. You have to generate certain income in order to have expenses. You spend more here than the budget receives in inflows,” said Almir Bečarević, president of the Cantonal Committee of the Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Let us remind you that weighting 2 was abolished in 2022, which in practice means that Sarajevo Canton was left without 97 million marks last year, 115 million marks this year, and 130 million marks next year, Federalna writes.
