Bandić: KS Government has indebted citizens like no other before

(Patria) - Sarajevo Canton (KS) has a new budget for 2025, exceeding 1.88 billion KM.

While the ruling parties of the 'Trojka' coalition boast about continuing projects like free textbooks, subsidies for kindergartens and extended stays, and announcing new airline routes... the largest portion of the budget traditionally goes to salaries.

The 'Trojka' has tried to justify new debts that KS citizens will pay, while the opposition in the KS Assembly warns that there is a lack of funds for infrastructure projects, social and parental benefits, or culture.

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Kanton Sarajevo dobio Budžet od 1,88 milijardi KM

(Patria) - Kanton Sarajevo dobio je danas rekordan Budžet, nakon što je Skupština Kantona Sarajevo usvojila ovaj dokument u iznosu od preko 1,88 milijardi KM za 2025. godinu.Podsjetimo, u novembru prošle godine usvojen je Nacrt budžeta KS za 202

- Besides not being a development-oriented budget, the Sarajevo Canton budget is not social either, because if it were, we wouldn't be halting the growth of social expenditures.

When adopting the budget, the KS Government also adopted a conclusion that a budget rebalance will be carried out very soon to monitor actual revenues and current expenditures, so as not to jeopardize the fiscal stability of the budget.

Even the Government itself does not expect the inflow they have presented in the budget. We can see that revenue in certain positions is not sufficiently explained.

It is interesting that the Government opted to present the allocated expenditures only after the Draft, in the Proposal. In the budget, which can be called record-high, not a single mark is planned for subsidizing young people who are solving their housing issues in 2025.

When we talk about infrastructure, only 100 KM is planned for the First Transversal, just to keep it from closing - said Muamer Bandić, a representative of the opposition Party for BiH in the KS Assembly, for Hayat.ba.

He also points out that more money is planned for the stray dog management project than for young people.

- The Law on Social Protection itself, or rather the Law on the Protection of Families with Children, has in a way prevented the monitoring of living costs, so that parental benefits keep pace with the costs of the consumer basket.

We have a situation where parental benefits will not be calculated according to the average salary, but according to the minimum wage. This is the most detrimental.

Those who announced that pro-natal policy have ultimately opted for such an amendment to the law through an expedited procedure, where representatives did not have the opportunity to influence it - says Bandić.

Namely, amendments to the Law on Social Protection, Protection of Civilian War Victims, and Protection of Families with Children have changed the method of calculating parental benefits, which until now was tied to the average federal salary.

With the adopted amendments, it will now be tied to the minimum wage, which since the beginning of this year amounts to 1,000 KM, with the determination of a special coefficient that the KS Government will set in accordance with available budget revenues.

Bandić believes that this creates discrimination against mothers in KS compared to other cantons in FBiH. He is of the opinion that the amendments to the Law should have gone through the regular procedure, with public debate. He also announces that the opposition will initiate this issue before the Constitutional Court of BiH due to procedural violations.

- A lot of money in the budget goes to public companies, such as the restructuring of GRAS. Unfortunately, we do not have a fully defined situation on how the previous restructuring of that public company ended.

I have no problem with allocating money to cantonal companies, but there is suspicion of some illegal activities. The public is not informed about the details of the restructuring. Tens of millions are allocated to that company, and we never get a final outcome - states Bandić.

Speaking about new credit borrowings, he estimates that, ultimately, with the realization of the new loan, KS will have over 740 million KM in debt on that basis.

- For comparison, in the government I was part of from 2012 to 2015, the budget was 750-760 million KM, and now we have such a debt. This government has indebted the citizens like no other before - notes Bandić.

According to him, if one looks at the realization of actual projects, then it is clear that something is wrong.

- It is devastating that we had a Prime Minister, Edin Forto, who said that there is money when there is no theft, so we should now see where that money is if there is no theft.

We will allocate over 800 million KM this year for salaries alone. We have 100 million KM in loans annually that we are repaying. That's already 900 million KM, so the real budget is 1.3 - 1.4 billion KM.

Everything else is inflated. Most detrimentally, a serious question arises whether we will have money in November or December to pay anything, including salaries - adds Bandić.

He also referred to the constant excuses of the 'Trojka' regarding the endangered budget due to the reduction of the ponder from the federal level, i.e., lower revenues from indirect taxes returned to KS.

- We have been talking about the ponder for three years, and no one is doing anything to overcome that situation or to create a systemic approach and a set of laws that will compensate for revenues from indirect taxes, or for the 'Trojka' parties, who are in power at the FBiH level, to return them.

Responsibility must be taken. We have KS resources that we must put into function to increase economic growth, they don't know how to do it. The ponder is no longer a deficiency, it cannot be a deficiency after three years, it is a deficiency of capability and vision of how KS should look.

I am sure that the people leading the KS Government do not know in which direction they are leading us. I see an opportunity for personal enrichment there, functions are used in that way.

We had a session break that was two hours longer than our voting time, completely contrary to the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly, because we had representatives who were trading there.

They have turned the coalition form of forming a parliamentary majority into a trade, you have individuals who trade for personal gain - concluded Bandić.