Forto: The only option is for the state to take over the payment of Viaduct's debt

(Patria) - The Council of Ministers of BiH held an extraordinary session today focused on one, but extremely important agenda item - the debt of RS to the Slovenian company Viaduct in the amount of 100 million KM.

A proposal to pay off this debt was submitted by the BiH Minister of Finance, Srđan Amidžić.

The session was adjourned because the proposal had not yet gone through the adoption procedure in the Fiscal Council, whose session is planned for the beginning of next week.

Amidžić's proposal envisages that the debt of RS to Viaduct be settled by state institutions, specifically the BiH Air Navigation Services Agency (BHANSA), reports Fena.

The BiH Minister of Transport and Communications, Edin Forto, stated that BiH does not have the mechanisms to control the entire process and that the only option at this moment remains for the state to take over the payment of this debt.

Forto added that the Council of Ministers of BiH adopted a conclusion that envisages a request to the Fiscal Council for an amendment to the fiscal framework, in order to enable the payment of the debt and unblock BHANSA's accounts through the budget.

- If the Fiscal Council does not give its consent, which is possible given that the redistribution of funds from the Central Bank could be detrimental to the Federation of BiH, there is a high probability that the Federation of BiH will not support it.

In that case, on Tuesday, at the session of the Council of Ministers, we will consider alternative ways to unblock BHANSA, so as to avoid interruption of the oversight of BiH's airspace - Forto said.

He added that the state of BiH will insist on resolving this through the budget, but the question of how those funds will be collected from the entities remains open.

The Chairperson of the Council of Ministers of BiH, Borjana Krišto, stated that BiH costs at least 9,000 euros every day, at least in interest.

She stated that she will advocate on behalf of the institution of the Council of Ministers for the arbitration award to be executed immediately in order to reduce its harmful consequences for BiH and its institutions, and that this be done at once and in a legal manner.

- We know that the only way is an intervention in the budget, and today I offered a proposed solution to make these corrections in the budget for the execution of the court ruling.

We could ask the Presidency of BiH and the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH to adopt these corrections as soon as possible. We could finalize the whole matter next week - Krišto said.