Betting shops: Decision on utility fees could lead Zenica to bankruptcy

Between 15 and 20 million KM will have to be returned by the City of Zenica from its budget to betting shops if the Cantonal Court accepts the upcoming lawsuit or the Constitutional Court of FBiH declares the recently adopted “Decision on Utility Fees” unconstitutional. We hope that this will happen. All recent decisions of the Constitutional Court of FBiH in such cases confirm that the Constitutional Court of FBiH does not tolerate violations of the right to equality, which is guaranteed by the Constitution of FBiH. This is claimed by private gambling operators, after local authorities in Zenica increased their fees several times, reports Patria.

The Zenica City Council recently adopted the “Decision on Utility Fees” which raises fees for betting shops from 2,500 KM to 30,000 to 50,000 KM annually, per payment point. The Mayor of Zenica, Fuad Kasumović, believes that such a decision will increase the city budget and allocations for sports clubs. Betting shops claim that this decision violates the principle of equality, endangers 200 jobs and around 100 landlords.

- The scenario that can be expected is as follows: in the coming period, operators will be charged utility fees in the amount of about five million KM for 2017. At the same time, operators will file an appeal with the Federal Ministry of Finance, and if it does not accept the appeal, an administrative dispute will be initiated at the Cantonal Court, which could end with a constitutional appeal, which the Constitutional Court of FBiH will accept, as it has done so far, because the constitutionally guaranteed right to equality before the law has been violated – claim the gambling operators.

- The process, according to past experiences, will last about three years, which means that operators will have to pay a total of 15 million KM in utility fees during that time. In the end, either the Cantonal Court will accept the lawsuit, or the Constitutional Court of FBiH will declare these fees unconstitutional, as it has already done in several identical situations. After that, the City of Zenica will have to return 15 million KM to the gambling operators, with applicable interest and court costs, which will mean that the City of Zenica, due to these “Decisions on Utility Fees” initiated by Mayor Fuad Kasumović, will be left without 15 to 20 million KM in three years, which will again have to be compensated by taxpayers, i.e. the citizens of Zenica, from their own pockets – they state from the betting shops. They add that gambling operators will certainly seek compensation for potential lost profits during the proceedings, so the costs for the City of Zenica budget could be even higher than the stated amount, which means that Zenica could face bankruptcy.

- By adopting the unconstitutional Decision on Utility Fees, the councilors of the Zenica City Council have committed a criminal offense under Article 241 of the Criminal Code of F BiH (violation of equality in the exercise of economic activity), but they are also guilty under Article 351 of the Criminal Code of F BiH, for failing to execute previous court decisions – consider the gambling operators.