Nezavisne novine: SARAJEVO – The heads of caucuses of the six position parties in the BiH parliament and the minister of finances of BiH could not yesterday harmonize the draft BiH budget. This was confirmed by the party representatives.
“The meeting was ended without the results. We cannot support the Draft sent by the Presidency of BiH, until the reasons because of which the Serb member of the Presidency was against it are removed“, said Drago Kalabić, the head of the SNSD Caucus in the BiH Parliament.
The House of Representatives of the BiH Parliament is supposed to discuss next week the Draft BiH Budget for this year. Currently there is no common ground of the representatives of the parliamentary majority on the size of this year’s budget.
“We will support the principles of this budget, but in the second phase we will propose the amendments which will be of technical nature”, said Azra Hadžiahmetović, the head of the Party for BiH Caucus.
Representative of the SDA, at the yesterday’s meeting, proposed the decrease of the Draft BiH Budget from around 1.2 billion KM to 1.186 billion KM, which would ensure the support of all the parties of the parliamentary majority.
“We think it is better to adopt budget which amounts to 1.186 billion KM than to have in the following three months as well the Decree on temporary financing. We believe that in this budget framework we can find the assets for increased help to the returnees. I also think that there is a room that we ensure from the accession funds of the EU the help for our companies. I believe that this is a compromise solution which is acceptable to all”, said Bajazit Ješarević, the SDA representative.
Resigning Minister of Finances of BiH, Dragan Vrankić, did not want to comment the yesterdays talks. The Council of Ministers of BiH at the end of the last year and at the beginning of this year created two Draft Budgets of BiH. The Presidency refused both, and submitted to the parliament the Draft written by the Chairman of the Presidency, Željko Komšić.