Same companies on the 'pillory' of the RS Tax Administration, debts only grow

The Tax Administration of Republika Srpska has published the latest list of tax debtors, and it is almost the same as in previous years. Healthcare institutions still lead when it comes to non-payment of taxes and contributions, as well as companies whose operations are based on natural resources.

In first place, when it comes to non-payment of taxes and contributions, is the University Clinical Center in Banja Luka, with a debt of over 80 million marks. This concerns old, inherited problems, says the director of this institution.

"In the past four years, during which I have been managing the UCC, this institution has not owed a single mark. Not to the state, nor the tax administration, nor suppliers, nor workers. We ended last year positively, and we will end this one as well. So, the media are talking about news that is four years old," said the director of the UCC RS, Vlado Đajić.

On the list of the RS Tax Administration with multi-million mark debts are also hospitals and clinical centers in East Sarajevo, Foča, Doboj, Bijeljina, Prijedor.

"We seemingly have a situation with no way out. Money needs to be found to settle the debts. Of course, that money again goes to the Tax Administration, that is, to Republika Srpska. But someone needs to sit down and do their job," said economist Zoran Pavlović.

However, healthcare institutions are not the only debtors. Among the top ten on the list of the RS Tax Administration are also the Birač Alumina Factory in bankruptcy, the Unis Pipe Factory Derventa, and "Swisslion Industrija alata" Trebinje.

"On the tax 'pillory' are more or less the same debtors and mostly the same or larger debts as in previous years, which, the conclusion of a number of our interlocutors, indicates the weak functioning of the rule of law, as well as the already well-known problems in the functioning of the bureaucracy," said journalist Siniša Vukelić.