Nezavisne novine: The Prosecutor’s Office of BiH does not obstruct processing the cases of tax frauds and customs, but those are very complicated subjects, so they are solving them slowly, says Kemal Čaušević, director of the Indirect Taxation Administration of BiH (ITA).
Čaušević, to whom the mandate of the first man of the Administration expires next month, says that only funds from the Pre-Accession Funds, but not all donations, need to be liberated from the obligation of paying the VAT.
NN: In the recent transcript between You and the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, the problem of slow processing of the subjects of tax frauds and customs, has been mentioned. Does the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH obstruct solving these cases?
ČAUŠEVIĆ: Nobody from the ITA of BiH, including myself, has ever said that the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH obstructs processing the subjects of tax frauds and customs. On the contrary, we have a very good and correct cooperation, which we will be developing in the future.
NN: Why is then solving these cases very slow?
ČAUŠEVIĆ: The ITA has in the previous four years submitted several reports to the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH. I am very glad that the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH has recently said in public the number of solved subjects and the way in which they have been solved, and what are the cases they are still solving. When speaking of the reports on committed crimes from the area of indirect taxes, it should be said that in most cases those are very demanding subjects which require certain time. We believe that the Prosecutor’s Office and the Court of BiH will do their job well and we are at disposal to help them any time, in order to process all the frauds on the basis of the indirect taxes.
NN: Why is the procedure of return of the VAT on donations, so complicated and slow?
ČAUŠEVIĆ: By the Law on the VAT, the direct exemption from paying the VAT on donations, has not been predicted, but the return of the VAT paid for obtaining goods and services of the international organizations, if this has been regulated by the international contracts whose signatory is Bosnia and Herzegovina, has been predicted.
In the first ten months this year, the ITA has received 828 requests for return of the VAT for diplomatic-consular representations, international organizations and the projects of assistance to BiH, where the return of VAT in a sum of 25.845.924 KM has been requested, and the requests in the sum of 881.945 KM have been declined.
NN: what is the standpoint of the ITA of BiH about the announced abolishment of the VAT on funds from the Pre-Accession Assistance of the EU to BiH?
ČAUŠEVIĆ: The European Commission Delegation has in several occasions depicted the need of adopting the legal regulation which would regulate liberalization of paying the VAT for all the projects which are being financed by the IPA funds, on what obligates the Framework agreement between BiH and the EU in a frame of implementation of the assistance through the Instruments of the Pre-Accession Assistance.
The ITA has submitted two proposals to the Council of Ministers of BiH. The first one is that the Council of Ministers by an urgent procedure proposes deliberations of the Proposal on Changes and Amendments to the Law on the VAT, and the second one is that the Council of Ministers deliberates the possibility of adopting decision by which this issue would be solved.
NN: Should the VAT on all donations be abolished, or only on the Pre-Accession Assistance of the EU?
ČAUŠEVIĆ: In the first and second proposal, which have been submitted by the ITA to the Council of Ministers of BiH, it has been predicted that the liberation of paying the VAT only belongs to obtaining goods and services in a frame of the projects which are being financed from the Instrument of the Pre-Accession Assistance.
NN: Will introduction of the fiscal counters reduce the space for financial frauds?
ČAŠEVIĆ: When speaking of introduction of the fiscal counters, while the process of fiscalisation is in progress in the RS, in the ITA we think that the best results would be achieved if the fiscal counters get introduced in the Federation of BiH at the same time. If the entity tax authorities introduce the fiscal counters, it would be very significant to have a connection with the main server in the ITA.
NN: Why?
ČAUŠEVIĆ: According to the Law on the VAT, the obligation to register in the system of VAT has each physical or legal person who passes the threshold in the sum of 50.000 KM of the taxed traffic. We think that in this moment there is a huge number of tax payers who are registering the whole achieved traffic and in that way avoid to enter the system of VAT. Connection with the main sever of the ITA would ensure to us to register all those who do not do that by themselves, but have that legal obligation.