Hasičević for BHRT: Many questions about non-working Sundays, pharmacies can operate as before

(Patria) - With the start of the application of the new Law on Internal Trade, the upcoming Sunday, November 17, will be the first non-working day for shops in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Federal Minister of Trade Amir Hasičević spoke about what this new practice brings in the BHT1 uživo program on this occasion.

"Trade facilities, i.e., all those stores that are registered as such, will not work on Sundays because the Law on Internal Trade has defined that article in such a way that the working hours of trade facilities are divided into six working days, except for Sunday, and they will not work on holidays. Well, we will see how it works next week since the 24th is Sunday and the 25th is a holiday, we will already have paragraph 3 of Article 18, stating that trade facilities will not work on holidays declared as such by competent authorities either," Hasičević said.

He explained that this applies to all trade facilities, with some exceptions, such as gas stations, florists, bakeries, crafts, souvenir shops, traditional old crafts, and markets where agricultural products are sold.

"We had many questions, and I think that's good. I am glad that the public is interested, and we from the Federal Ministry of Trade find the strength to interpret the law publicly like this," he stated, specifically highlighting, as he said, many questions related to the operation of pharmacies.

"There was a small confusion, given that we took the basic argument from the Federal Administration for Inspection Affairs based on activity codes according to the standard classification, and then it turned out that pharmacies were also in that domain. However, the federal Law on Pharmacy was delegated to cantonal levels by regulations, so they are, in fact, lex specialis and are excluded. We are now talking with the Federal Administration to exclude pharmacies. Pharmacies can operate - they don't have to, but they can, as before," Hasičević emphasized.

When asked about the arrest today of Bojan Bošnjak, Minister of Communal Economy, Infrastructure, Spatial Planning, Construction and Environmental Protection in the Government of Sarajevo Canton, who is also a member of Naša stranka, the same party as Hasičević, he said that the political party fully supports the work of the judiciary.