Bajrović: Government did not decide on a 17 percent tax increase, working documents are not yet ready

At the session of the FBiH Government, the Federal Ministry of Finance was tasked with, in cooperation with the Working Group for the Analysis of Fiscal Regulations, examining the implications of including benefits that do not have the character of salary (warm meal, transport, holiday bonus) in the tax base and submitting several options for the possible introduction of a progressive income tax rate to the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, writes the Patria News Agency.

Today, the media reported that this translates to a tax increase from the current 10 percent for everyone with an average or higher salary to 17 percent. However, in a statement to Patria, Reuf Bajrović (DF), Minister of Energy and Mining, says that no one mentioned a 17 percent increase at the Government session.

- I did not understand it that way at the Government session. There are no documents yet, and the discussion on this topic has just begun. Certainly, that 17 percent is nowhere, nor was it mentioned anywhere, and I have not yet seen the working material. And I don't have a concrete answer to that question. It is the Prime Minister's initiative, and he is in Washington, so we will see how it develops further – Bajrović said.

He emphasized that the Government's decision, which was adopted, certainly did not specify an increase in income tax to 17 percent.

- That is definitely not what the Government adopted – Bajrović emphasized.

Otherwise, this decision arose as part of measures to increase the economic standard of citizens, based on the commitments made in the exposé of the Prime Minister of FBiH submitted to the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament during the confirmation of his appointment.