Federal Government's Decision to Reduce Revenue Dealt a Blow to Sarajevo Canton

The Sarajevo Canton Government discussed the Bill on Amendments to the Law on the Allocation of Public Revenues in the FBiH, which was determined at today's session of the FBiH Government and sent to parliamentary procedure as an urgent matter, which reduces the financing of cantons from the Unified Account and includes a special provision allocating 0.25 percent of Sarajevo Canton's revenue for the financing of the City of Sarajevo's functions, reports the Patria News Agency.

The amendments proposed today by the FBiH Government, as emphasized at today's session of the Sarajevo Canton Government, were adopted with surprising speed and without broader consultations, primarily with the Sarajevo Canton Government.

The Sarajevo Canton Government is not aware of the reasons for adopting such legal solutions and believes that it is too risky to open discussions and offer new legal solutions without a quality economic analysis and without serious consideration of the Law on the Allocation of Public Revenues.

- We believe this is a very serious blow to Sarajevo Canton, is the stance of the Government, which is an important driver of broader positive economic processes.

Sarajevo Canton generates 38 percent of the total GDP in the FBiH, and its vital functions could be seriously jeopardized by the adoption of such decisions.

- We call on the FBiH Government for an urgent meeting before this Bill appears before the FBiH Parliament, so we can jointly consider such legal proposals.

We note that Sarajevo Canton largely bears the burden of financing education, healthcare, culture, and sports by covering the obligations of other cantons, the Federation, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Over 12,000 students from other FBiH cantons study in Sarajevo Canton. The University Clinical Center Sarajevo is largely financed by Sarajevo Canton, while other founders do not contribute. A large number of patients from all over BiH receive treatment here, and bills for the accommodation of students from other cantons remain unpaid for years. Sarajevo Canton finances seven state cultural institutions, and it does the same for sports teams. We believe these should be financed, but these are also obligations of other levels of government in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Due to the financial burden, we will seriously consider transferring some constitutional responsibilities from the Canton to the City of Sarajevo.

We learned from the media that the City of Sarajevo operated with a surplus last year, while Sarajevo Canton has an accumulated deficit of over 90 million KM and 40 million KM in liabilities from court judgments for public sector employees.

This Government has decisively embarked on solving accumulated problems, and funds are allocated for this in the Budget. We believe that such decisions will slow down the realization and resolution of these problems, and therefore we hope for a meeting with representatives of the FBiH Government as soon as possible, according to the conclusion and statement adopted by the Sarajevo Canton Government at today's emergency session.