Catastrophic financial reports of EPBiH, mines on their knees due to bad investments

The Tax Administration of the Federation of BiH has blocked the accounts of coal mines operating in a consortium with Elektroprivreda BiH, due to multi-million debts to public funds and suppliers.

These are seven mines in the area of Tuzla, Zenica-Doboj and Central Bosnia Canton, Patria reports.

The blow to miners comes due to problems in Elektroprivreda BiH. The company's poor performance has been negatively affecting miners for several months. But this has been kept secret until now. At the Breza mine, miners' salaries have already been reduced by up to 20 percent. Salaries could fall further, and after the account blockade, it is questionable whether they will be paid on time at all.

Patria has obtained documentation revealing that the profit of Elektroprivreda BiH fell from more than 56 million KM to just over 13 million KM in three years. The company has not provided an explanation for the sharp drop in profit, although the volume of revenue remained approximately the same during that period. A source from this public company reveals that Elektroprivreda BiH is operating with increasing difficulty due to poor management of the company, primarily due to bad and suspicious investments.

Facsimile of the financial report on the operations of Elektroprivreda Photo Patria

Financial reports show that in 2013, Elektroprivreda BiH had a turnover of 981,025,487 KM, expenses amounted to 924,599,088 KM, and net profit was 37,044,337 KM. Just two years later, in 2015, Elektroprivreda achieved a slightly lower turnover of 954,539,111 KM, but net profit fell to only 3,635,753 KM. The profit of Elektroprivreda BiH was even lower the year before, in 2014, amounting to only 3,234,760 KM, Patria reveals.