Ministry of Defence: BiH Armed Forces members will not have 'higher pensions than salaries'

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Regarding media reports of incomplete and inaccurate information concerning the realization of pension rights for members of the BiH Armed Forces residing in the Federation of BiH, in order to provide objective and truthful information, the MoD of BiH informs the public as follows:

"Members of the BiH Armed Forces, residents of the Federation of BiH, realize their pension rights in accordance with Chapter V of the Law on Service in the BiH Armed Forces, according to which all members of the BiH Armed Forces have the same retirement conditions.

The institutions of the Federation of BiH have divided members of the BiH Armed Forces into three payment groups through their regulations, whereby retired members of the BiH Armed Forces, as well as those members entitled to retirement, after March 1, 2018, are in a significantly more unfavorable position compared to all previously retired.

The differences in payments for certain categories of retired members of the BiH Armed Forces range up to 700 KM.

Compared to all other categories, only for members of the BiH Armed Forces in the FBiH, based on the Law on Service in the BiH Armed Forces, financial resources for this purpose are secured from contributions for pension and disability insurance of military insured persons and from the budget, which represents a significant amount in the PIO/MIO fund.

Based on this fact, the MoD of BiH has initiated an initiative to harmonize the pensions of all military insured persons.

Certain representatives in the Parliament of the Federation of BiH, based on the initiative of the MoD of BiH, have drafted a proposal for regulations on the extraordinary harmonization of military insured persons' pensions.

According to this proposal, categories of retired military insured persons in the period after March 1, 2018, would not have 'higher pensions than salaries', as claimed by some media.

This proposal by certain representatives in the FBiH Parliament would lead to the equalization of rights for all military insured persons and ensure equal opportunities for retirement for the same categories of professional military personnel.

Furthermore, the proposed solutions would not affect other categories of retired persons in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.