Betting shops: Minister Milićević admitted we are victims of political compromise, protests to follow

Prime Minister Fadil Novalić and Minister of Finance Jelka Milićević decided to close domestic betting shops, leave 5,500 workers jobless and hand over the domestic market to foreign lobbies. This is claimed by domestic gambling operators from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose business will be ruined by the new amendments to the Law on Gambling, reports NAP.

On the 150 million KM revenue generated in the first nine months of 2016, betting shops in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina would have to pay 187.5 million KM in taxes if the amendments that the FBiH Government plans to send for adoption to the FBiH Parliament were applied. This alone, explain the gambling operators, would drive them into a deficit of 37.5 million KM, and when regular operating costs, which amount to 114.7 million KM for nine months, are added, the betting shops, they claim, would be in a deficit of about 152 million KM.

Legal betting shops victims of political compromise

- This is a taxation model that the FBiH Government established through amendments, and regarding which the Minister of Finance Jelka Milićević stated on 16.11.2016, at a meeting with betting shop representatives, that she is aware it will close down legal domestic betting shops, but that she cannot do anything about it, because domestic betting shops, along with their 5,500 workers and 3,000 landlords, are victims of a political compromise within the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina – claim the gambling operators.

FBiH Government leaves 5,500 workers jobless

- The Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has, therefore, through a political compromise, and not through a professional analysis it was obliged to conduct, established amendments that condemn legal domestic betting shops, which annually contribute about 80 million KM to the federal budget, to closure, their 5,500 workers to unemployment agencies, and 3,000 property owners to seeking new business entities that will duly and timely settle all their obligations, as legal domestic betting shops have done.

The fact that this is a 'premeditated murder' of legal domestic betting shops is confirmed by Minister Milićević's admission that the Federal Ministry of Finance has not conducted any analysis of the possible effects of these amendments, and when warned by betting shop representatives that these tax measures mean the closure of domestic companies, layoffs for 5,500 workers, and the flourishing of the black market in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Minister Milićević had no answer – add the gambling operators. They warn that on the day of the meeting between Minister Milićević and betting shop representatives, the Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Fadil Novalić, continued the negative campaign against them, stating that betting shops paid 18 million KM in taxes in the first nine months of 2016, which, claim the gambling operators, is an absolute lie.

- Data from the FBiH Tax Administration show that betting shops from 1 January 2016 to 30 September 2016 paid 24.5 million KM in direct taxes and fees, and another approximately 27.7 million KM in contributions, VAT, income tax, and other parafiscal charges – claim domestic gambling operators.

Employers and workers of legal domestic betting shops have announced large protests in front of the FBiH Government and Parliament buildings, where more than 10,000 people will raise their voices against Minister Milićević, Prime Minister Novalić, and the FBiH Government, reports NAP.