Federal Parliament next week on temporary financing, what Nikšić promised for the first quarter of 2025

(Patria) - In the same week that the FBiH Government is expected to consider the Budget, an extraordinary session of the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament has been scheduled, which will also include a decision on temporary financing for the first quarter of 2025.

A session of the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament has also been scheduled for January 16, which includes this decision and related decisions, as well as the election of judges to the Constitutional Court of the Federation of BiH.

The decision on temporary financing for the first quarter of 2025 cannot enter into force until it is adopted by the FBiH Parliament.

And while a session of the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament has not yet been scheduled at the request of parliamentarians following the decision on a minimum wage of 1,000 KM, which was suddenly made by the FBiH Government, in order to hear the voice of parliamentarians who have certain conclusions, the Prime Minister of FBiH Nermin Nikšić announced at this week's press conference what the Government will do in the first quarter of 2025.

"The Government is aware that there are employers who will have problems complying with this. We have decided on measures – for micro and small businesses, subsidies after the adoption of the budget, which should be sent into procedure soon, then a set of laws, the law on fiscalization is in public debate and we will send it into parliamentary procedure. In the first quarter, we plan amendments to the laws on contributions, income, and minimum wage. One of the measures is also inspection supervision to prevent undeclared work, tax evasion, and other abuses. The Government is ready to consider the issue of adopting a decree for employers who prove that they have increased wages and exempt them from paying contributions," said Nikšić.

However, where there are many promises, implementation is questionable. And while employers are asking the Government for urgent tax and contribution relief by reducing them to an acceptable rate so that the increase in the minimum wage can be borne more easily, the FBiH Government is not ready for a quick reaction.

Instead of an agreement with employers, the Government decided to adopt a measure that workers and trade unions welcomed, but the question is for how long. It is inevitable that the increase in the minimum wage will increase other prices. Bread has already become more expensive, and an increase in other products and services is expected. Where employers can make a profit, they will pursue those measures.

However, along with this measure, the Government also told employers that inspection supervision will be intensified. Controls have already begun. On the Facebook group Glas malih biznisa, after the Government's decision, employers are reporting and analyzing what the Government could have done if it had truly wanted to help workers, ease the burden on employers, and fill the budget in another way.

Employers say that the Government made the wrong order of steps. Instead of completing fiscal reform and then increasing the minimum wage, the Government decided to go in the reverse order. Furthermore, employers write:

"The state needs to regulate undeclared business (sales on sidewalks, bridges, parks, illegal vehicle rentals, houses, apartments, illegal transport of vehicles, goods, and people without adequate vehicles, licenses, company registration, employed drivers, illegal construction work, servicing, etc.), which accounts for a large part of turnover. Only when the Government regulates these segments and strengthens inspection supervision over illegal business can Nermin Nikšić and Vojin Mijatović (who have never invested a dinar in any business and thus tried to earn a dinar for themselves, and now they drive in limousines with escorts) come out and badmouth us employers, as they are doing these days, and mention some billions that we are allegedly hiding. This way, everything is at our expense, and that part of the workers, who have never worked a day in the real sector, but have obtained jobs through various connections with political entities, from cleaners to security guards, doormen to administration and management in public companies, call us criminals and millionaires, because they see us as those employers from the public sector who have stripped this country bare," reads one post.

Economic analysts, whose job it is to foresee the effects of this decision, do not have good news. They expect a decrease in the number of employees, an increase in undeclared work, an increase in inflation, demands for wage increases in line with the rising cost of living, i.e., consequences that will have a long-term impact on the economy of FBiH, which was relatively stable.