The House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina (PABiH) accepted that the Proposal of the Law on Amendments to the Law on Value Added Tax of BiH, proposed by Member of Parliament (MP) Mia Karamehic-Abazovic (Our Party), be considered under an urgent procedure.
The proposed law envisages deleting the provision under which games of chance are exempt from paying VAT.
Karamehic-Abazovic said that she cannot understand why, in the VAT Law adopted in 2005, alongside exemptions covering insurance services, reinsurance, financial transactions, credit services, management of investment funds, the supply of gold to the Central Bank, postage stamps, and games of chance appear as an exemption.
“Some will say that this is because of a European Union (EU) directive from 2006. The law was adopted a year before the directive. I repeat that the directive also provided for exemptions which “allow countries, under their own conditions and limitations, to tax this activity within the VAT system,” which countries such as Belgium, Ireland, and Germany use to tax certain types of games of chance that they consider insufficiently taxed at lower levels of government,” Karamehic-Abazovic said.
She added that the way this amendment is envisaged is very simple to implement.
“Since transactions of games of chance are already recorded in the tax administrations of both entities, implementation will be quite simple. Of course, representatives of lobbies have come forward, especially the betting lobby, which, for some reason, does not like this amendment, which, I repeat, was not proposed only by us or only by me today. This amendment was also proposed by colleagues from the SDA caucus several years ago, and many amendments were proposed at the entity levels as well,” Karamehic-Abazovic said.
MP Sasa Magazinovic (SDP BiH) thanked colleague Karamehic-Abazovic, who, as he said, opened this very important issue.
“When we talk about paying VAT, this is not a law on taxing betting shops, but on taxing the people who play, the players. This law does not tax the betting shop, but the player,” Magazinovic said.
He added that the SDP BiH caucus will support every measure that will have the effect of reducing the number of people addicted to gambling and betting, and that “this law, which hits the player in the pocket, is a tool to make that player give up betting.”
“If this is a tool for people to give up betting, we support it,” Magazinovic said.
He asked the proposer of the law to clarify how this would look in practice.
MP Mia Karamehic-Abazovic explained that the basis for charging VAT will be every transaction that enables a potential gain.
“So, whether that transaction is in the form of a ticket, a scratch card, a chip, it will apply not only to betting shops, it will also apply to slot machines, it will also apply to casinos, so in total to all games of chance,” she said.
She added that the subject of taxation will be every transaction and that it is indeed taxation of the player.
MP Milan Petkovic (United Srpska) said that he opposes the urgent procedure because this law had already gone through the parliamentary procedure and was not adopted.
“For that reason, we need to see why, to discuss why it was not adopted, what the arguments “for” and “against” were at the time, and to possibly obtain the opinion and position of the professional public, what this would mean for the BiH budget, what the benefits are, or whether it is an additional burden on citizens. We must be aware that we have a huge number of people who bet, who gamble, and that this is a scourge just like the scourge of smoking, alcoholism, and the like,” Petkovic said.
He added that this is a topic that should be discussed.
“This is important to all of us who live in this country, whose families live in this country, and who care about the future of our children. We all see that betting shops are opening every day and on every corner. But we must not rush into something only to get a lawsuit tomorrow from those betting shops, because we introduced a levy that we were not allowed to introduce, because it is contrary to certain directives. It would be useful for us to conduct a debate on this issue, to obtain the opinion either of the professional public or the public in general,” Petkovic said.
He added that for this reason, he will be against the urgent procedure.
MP Mladen Bosic (SDS) said that this is one of the most important life issues.
“The situation in which families are being torn apart, the lives of our fellow citizens are being destroyed, and someone is becoming enormously rich from this, and in addition has the protection of certain political structures in BiH, is a topic that is a first-rate issue not only for this parliament but for the entire society. This is something about which we should really open a public debate and, in some way, familiarize people with the scourge that is happening there,” Bosic believes.
He said that he supports opening a broader debate on this, but not only to introduce this tax, because he believes that this is not a sufficient measure.
“It is useful, welcome as a deterrent. Therefore, I would propose to the proposer to consider withdrawing the request for the urgent procedure, in order to enable a deeper debate in several readings here in parliament, so that through that the public is informed and perhaps the bodies that should react, react to what is happening before our eyes,” Bosic said.
MP Nihad Omerovic (NiP) said that he will give support to the urgent procedure.
“But I will also, like colleague Bosic, suggest to the proposer of the mentioned legislative solution that, if she considers and assesses it to be purposeful, the urgent procedure be converted into a shortened procedure. We will not lose that much time, bearing in mind the effect we can achieve by, if there are possibilities and space, upgrading the proposed legislative solution, especially in the part that would sanction to the greatest extent playrooms and all those establishments, that is, legal entities engaged in games of chance, because they are generators, both at the micro and global level, of all the scourges of modern society,” Omerovic stated.
MP Serif Spago (SDA) said that it is best to apply “shock therapy, pass the law, and then, if there is a need, amend it afterward, because I am sure it will not be adopted if it goes into regular procedure.”
He added that the SDA caucus will support the urgent procedure.
MP Branislav Borenovic (PDP) said that currently, there is no greater vice, greater scourge, evil, and addiction in our society than gambling and betting.
“I belong to a political option that strongly advocates that betting shops be moved as far away from schools as possible, or even banned and abolished, because this is a huge evil that destroys human lives and entire families,” Borenovic said.
He added that he agrees that this issue should be resolved systemically.
After the request for consideration under the urgent procedure was accepted, MPs also held a debate on the substance of the proposed law.
