Emergency session of the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly: Deputies discuss the Institutions Budget for 2025

(Patria) - The House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina will consider at today's emergency session the Proposal of the Law on the Budget of the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and International Obligations of Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2025 in the first reading. It is still unknown who will present the proposed Budget, and at earlier sessions there was no authorized proposer.

The Finance and Budget Committee yesterday accepted the principles of the Budget Proposal, and at today's session, the issue and need for amendments to the submitted proposal from the BiH Presidency will be opened.

For the Budget to gain support, it must also have an entity majority, and it is expected that this could be opposition deputies from the RS.

At yesterday's session of the Finance and Budget Committee of the House of Representatives, the Assistant Minister of Finance and Treasury for Budget, Igor Bevanda, arrived, thereby "unblocking" the support of the Ministry of Finance, which should be responsible for this task.

"He explained to us that the budget can be technically corrected regarding the 15 million KM that the BiH Presidency included for salary increases, i.e., redistributed, but eight million KM for allowances is missing and this must be resolved through amendments, that money must be 'removed' from some beneficiaries somewhere," Pekić told Faktor.

The Budget Proposal submitted by the BiH Presidency also includes 22 million KM for BHRT, as well as 8 million KM for seven cultural institutions of national importance. However, SNSD does not want to support any of these items.

It has already been announced that amendments will be submitted to change the Budget Proposal.

However, whether another session will be held today to immediately consider the amendments is difficult to predict in a heated political game.

Unions of state institutions have demanded the urgent adoption of the budget, or they will start protests and strikes.

For the Budget to enter into force, it must be adopted in identical form in both houses of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly.