Arapović: Law on revenue distribution may end up at the Constitutional Court due to procedural omission

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - These days, the futile discussion about the adoption of the new Law on Public Revenue Allocation has caused quite a stir. The law was proposed by a group of deputies from several parties, and then adopted by the House of Representatives of the Federal Parliament by a majority of votes of deputies who are not from Sarajevo. Their position is that this law corrects an injustice and directs part of the revenue from the Sarajevo Canton to other Cantons. Deputies from Sarajevo believe that these arguments do not hold and that the Sarajevo Canton is already receiving less than it gives in tax terms, said Adis Arapović, a deputy from the "State" Club, on Facebook today.

"However, before the discussion on this Law began, the proposer of the Law, Salko Zildžić, requested the 'removal of the Law from the Agenda', i.e., postponement of the debate. The Chairperson Zaimović stated 'that the Law cannot be removed from an already adopted Agenda', and immediately declared a break. After the break, the debate continued, without any reference to the request of deputy Zildžić (?). After the debate concluded and the Law was adopted, Chairperson Zaimović informed the deputies that the Government had requested the removal of several items from the agenda, which the Chairperson did independently without putting this decision to a vote of the House (?). The Rules of Procedure of the House of Representatives, as a derivative of the Constitution of the Federation of BiH, states in Article 183: 'The proposer of a bill may propose to the House of Representatives to postpone the debate on the bill until the end of the debate.' The House of Representatives decides on this proposal immediately. Chairperson Zaimović did not put the request to a vote of the House, neither in the case of disputing deputy Zildžić's request to postpone the debate on the Law, nor in the case of the Government's request to postpone the debate on their items," Arapović stated.

He adds that the dispute over deputy Zildžić's request to remove his own item from the agenda is particularly problematic. The video recording of the session confirms all of this.

"So, apart from the fact that the adoption of this law, with a financial effect of hundreds of millions of marks, was carried out in a very superficial and populist manner, without any serious analysis and without a binding fiscal assessment, apart from the fact that any responsible politician should advocate for balanced and uniform regional development, which is also my personal stance, such amateurish meddling with parliamentary procedures, the Constitution of the Federation of BiH, and a law whose adoption can have significant positive and negative consequences, is unacceptable. It seems to me that it would be fair for authorized appellants to review the violation of the procedure, which is indirectly also a violation of the Constitution, and for the Constitutional Court to determine whether a big mistake was made in haste and at all costs. And then it may happen that this Law is discussed again, thoroughly, properly, and with arguments," concluded Arapović.