Čović: Let's copy the Law on Games of Chance from EU countries and the problem is solved

The Law on Games of Chance, which was supposed to be considered under an urgent procedure in the House of Peoples of FBiH today, did not pass the Legislative Committee of this house, reports Patria.

The law will be considered under the regular procedure... 

Dragan Čović, the leader of HDZ, said today that there is nothing more to resolve regarding this issue.

- I have been silent for a long time about the accusations that I have some kind of relationship with these companies involved in games of chance. I think the Minister of Finance, Jelka Milićević, has prepared a Proposal for Amendments and Additions in line with what I have been saying, that we should apply European standards, and we will have to do this in other sectors as well. Because, if we want to get the green light from the EU on Monday, we will have to make moves ourselves, not wait for someone to give us a framework and say, give us this or that law. If we insist on this law, it is part of the BiH economy, but let's copy what other countries are doing, who are probably much wiser when it comes to protecting the budgets of those countries. If we don't look at Croatia and Slovenia, let's do it the way Austria or Germany does, and we will have solved the problem, I have no further influence on it – Čović pointed out.

Otherwise, the introduction of a 10 percent tax on all payments is contrary to European practice.

Almost all European countries, when it comes to this tax, have adopted a model where gross income, i.e., the difference between total payments and total payouts, is taxed at a certain rate. The model of taxing all payments, i.e., taxing the entire turnover, has been abandoned because it simply does not function in the activity of organizing games of chance and is detrimental to budget revenues.