Bečarević: Sarajevo-gas Istočno Sarajevo operated with profit, yet is blackmailing with a new gas transport tariff

(Patria) - Agreeing to the blackmail by Sarajevo-gas Istočno Sarajevo is merely a continuation of all the concessions the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) makes to entities from the Republika Srpska (RS) entity, says former minister in the Government of Sarajevo Canton (KS) Almir Bečarević.

According to him, slowly but surely, the FBiH is moving towards completely taking over the entire support of the smaller BiH entity.

"The economically stronger entity, FBiH, is now the basis on which the RS entity operates at all, not only through the distribution of money from the state level, but now economic entities are also entering this, seeing an opportunity to extract money from the FBiH pool and base their development on the money of citizens and the economy of FBiH.

This subservience, and it can now be said ignorance of the competent authorities from FBiH, is becoming the basis for politicians and businessmen from RS to see that with a little more pressure they can extract money from FBiH, and that we are reaching an absurd situation where FBiH is financing RS.

This RS construct was created on the bones of thousands of murdered people, and now, through the decisions of the competent authorities, we are succeeding in masochistically participating in saving the economy of the RS entity.

How can one logically explain to those who agree to the blackmail by Sarajevo-gas Istočno Sarajevo, and they say, after 4 hours of negotiations, that you give them more money without even looking at the balance sheets of the very entity that is asking for more money.

Namely, Sarajevo-gas Istočno Sarajevo achieved a profit of 616,842 KM in the first 6 months of 2023. This profit is almost 50% higher compared to the first 6 months of 2022, when it was 441,058 KM.

This profit was also generated based on the increase in the transport tariff that Sarajevo-gas Istočno Sarajevo charges Energoinvest, which increased in 2023 from 7.1 KM to 11.1 KM. Now, an agreement has been reached under blackmail, and a new tariff of 14.1 KM has been approved, and it would be logical to ask at least why?

Why agree to an increase when Sarajevo-gas Istočno Sarajevo is already making a profit with the 2023 tariff?

We will certainly not get a logical answer, because to get one, the competent authorities would need to know how to look at the balance sheet of Sarajevo-gas Istočno Sarajevo.

Those responsible for agreeing to the blackmail should at least know how a business entity operates, they should at least know how the price of gas is formed, they should at least know how much transport network each entity has, at least know how much profit each has, and at least know what agreeing to blackmail ultimately means.

Negotiating for four hours only to agree to a new price and a request for a three-year contract and for the nonsensical consent of the RS Government or regulator is just an indication that it is better not to enter into 'negotiations' but to immediately 'lie down' to the demands, so as not to create panic like during New Year's.

Give money from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as much as needed, to everyone in RS so that the next January 9th can be celebrated even more expensively and wastefully", Bečarević stated.