For the first time since the establishment of the Administration for Indirect Taxation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ITA BiH), collected revenues from indirect taxes in one month exceeded one billion BAM.
Almost 6.5 billion BAM was collected in seven months. The largest part of the income from indirect taxes, as well as all the collected surplus, ended up with the entities and Brčko District. However, skeptics rightly ask how the record revenues are spent and how is it possible that, despite the record collection of taxes, the standard of citizens is not improving?
The state coffers are heavier by exactly 1.73 billion BAM on the basis of indirect taxes collected by the ITA BiH, and that only in July. This means that, compared to the same period last year, this amount is 122 million BAM higher.
“If we look at the revenues for the seven months of 2024, the ITA collected a total of six billion and 495 million BAM and they are higher by 543 million BAM or by 9.12 percent compared to the same period in 2023. In the distribution of income for the financing of state institutions, the same amount was set aside as last year, while the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska and Brčko District received significantly more income from indirect taxes this year, compared to last year,” stated Darjana Maglov.
This means that state institutions have a “paltry” 592 million BAM at their disposal for seven months of this year. More than 2.8 billion BAM was diverted to the Federation of BiH, more than 1.6 billion BAM to the Republic of Srpska, while Brčko District followed with more than 160 million BAM. For the construction of highways and the construction and reconstruction of other roads, the Federation of BiH received an additional 132 million BAM, the Republika Srpska 87 million BAM, and the Brčko District 4.5 million BAM.
We are still waiting for better roads, and bearing in mind that higher figures open more room for fraud, the question is whether all this money really goes where it is intended?
“We monitored the spending of money through all levels of government – from state, entity, cantonal and local budgets. Where we have seen the greatest suspicion of corruption is public procurement and the distribution of grants to citizens’ associations. We noticed that more than 800 candidates in the last elections had their own associations that received public funds, where they were directly or indirectly in a conflict of interest”, explained Srđan Traljić, manager of public relations at Transparency Internetional.
We have a conflict of interest law, but we don’t really benefit from it.
And while we look at these multi-million sums, we can’t help but wonder how, despite the record collection of taxes, the standard of citizens has remained the same?
This is why, economists explain, a very small amount of money is directed to cantons or municipalities, which, among other things, spend it to pay off credit obligations, which is why citizens are left with nothing. Income growth, therefore, does not reflect economic progress.
“This, in fact, shows that we do not have so many problems with continuous billing. Regardless of inflation, the rate of collection of public revenues is increasing. On the other hand, redistribution is problematic when we talk about that amount of money, because it is not spent on purpose and does not meet the basic needs of our citizens”, believes Admir Čavalić from the Committee for Economic Policy at the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
When everything is added up and subtracted, the government holders profit the most from the collected indirect taxes, which is reflected in their huge appetites such as sums for national teams or expensive vehicles. What is left for the citizens, which is absurd, because the ITA brags about the collected indirect taxes, which were, in fact, properly paid by the citizens, N1 writes.
