Nezavisne novine: SARAJEVO – Constitutional conference of the Fiscal Council of BiH will be held in September, has been said by Lazar Prodanović, vice chairman of the commission for Finance and Budget of the Parliament of BiH. This Council will take on responsibility of agreeing the state and entity budgets.
“The House of Representatives and the House of Peoples of the Parliament of BiH have adopted the Law on the Fiscal Council of BiH, but in different texts. The same text has been approved and delivered last week to “The Official Gazette of BiH”, to publicly announce it. In 30 days from the day of announcement in “The Official Gazette” the constitutional conference must be held. So, this will happen by beginning of September”, says Prodanović.
Establishing the Fiscal Council on demand of the EU
The European Union has requested from BiH to immediately accept the Law on the Fiscal Council, so the public spending can be controlled. Establishing this Council is one of the 30 short-term priorities which the EU has put in front of the governments of BiH, on basis of which will measure progress of the country towards the EU.
Efforts to adopt the Law on the Fiscal Council of BiH have lasted for several years already. Representatives of the state and entities could not agree on competencies of this institution, which will according to the adopted Law, be supreme authority for defining the whole public spending in country. Members of the Fiscal Council of BiH will be the state and entity prime ministers, and ministers for finance, while the representatives of the Central Bank of BiH and the District of Brčko will be supervisors. The Chairperson of the Council of the Ministries of BiH will at the same time be the Chairperson of the Fiscal Council.
“We currently have 14 ministries for finance. Each one of them does what they want and spends how much they want. Result of such behavior is enormous increase of salaries on all levels, and increase of public spending too. Task of the Fiscal Council of BiH will be to reduce the growth and determine the total public spending. Clearly said, the Council will determine how much of money will be spent, and the frames for budgets of all levels of the Government”, explains Fuad Kasumović, Deputy Minister for the Finance of BiH. He says that because of the absence of one body which would regulate the public spending, the state has come into the situation to increase the taxes because of the increase of costs and reduce of profits from custom. “Decision on whether direct and indirect taxes will be increased, will be reached very soon. At the end, this is less important because the increase of taxes will directly impact the economy and citizens”, Kasumović has concluded.