Nezavisne novine: SARAJEVO – After fulfillment of all obligations from the last year, in the FBiH, instead of planned 150 million KM, which were built into the budget for this year, there is only around twenty million left, which means that Federation is already now short of money, warns minister of finances of the FBiH, Vjekoslav Bevanda.
“With this overestimated surplus, and realignment with the RS for the last year on the basis of division of money from the unique account, for which I expect to be at our loss, I expect that in September we are left without money”, said Bevanda for “Nezavisne”. He warns that the situation will be even harder if demands appear for increase in salaries which are being announced from all institutions.
And while Government in May is supposed to discuss the report on execution of the budget, the former prime minister of the FBiH, and now MP in the Parliament of the FBiH, Alija Behmen, warns that that must not happen.
“That would be a disaster, bankruptcy of the FBiH, but that should not happen. After all, there is always a possibility for rebalance and cutting of the expenses”, Behmen pointed out. He thinks that the only important thing is that the Government of the FBiH, as an executive authority which deals with the money, “does not hide the money”.
Chairman of the Parliamentary Board for Finances, Omer Vatrić, also thinks that in the case of a difficult situation, rebalance would be a solution.
“There is a Law on Execution of the Budget and it is known what the priorities are. It is important to fulfil all the legal obligations, and in the worst case some projects which do not have to be realised this year, can be postponed”, said Vatrić. He warns that when the budget was planned there were no exaggerations in spending, but expected income from the VAT is bigger than planned.
According to the data of the Indirect Taxation Authority (ITA) of BiH, for the first three months of this year all the beneficiaries received by 15 per cent more than for the same period last year. That way, the Federation of BiH for the first three months received 608 million KM.