We are not in a situation to quickly fulfill the IMF's conditions

Ante Krajina, Minister of Finance of FBiH, told the BiH news agency Patria that BiH is not in a situation to quickly fulfill the requested amendments to laws and decrees that the Mission of the International Monetary Fund asked of us, so that we could apply for the next, seventh tranche.

- They left BiH with the stance that once we resolve what we need to, we should contact them so that we can sign an additional letter of intent and send it to the Board of Executive Directors. We in the Federation of BiH must amend the Law on Budget Execution, which states that the first signatory is only the Minister of Finance; this system cannot depend on one person. We have already adopted amendments to this law at the Government level and sent them to the parliaments, adding that if the minister is prevented, the Government can appoint a person, but this needs to be adopted in both houses of the FBiH Parliament - Krajina said.

We remind you that in mid-March, the Mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) left Bosnia and Herzegovina with unfinished business, meaning the sixth review of the credit arrangement was not successfully completed. Failure to meet the conditions will mean a delay in the seventh tranche of the loan, close to 100 million marks, which was foreseen after the end of the first quarter.

Krajina emphasized that a law on excise taxes on tobacco and tobacco products needs to be adopted at the state level. Also, Republika Srpska must make an amendment, because they have a provision in one of their laws that prevents the four Tax Administrations from freely exchanging data among themselves. Speaking about the Law on Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism, Krajina said that this is not a condition set by the IMF measures that need to be implemented.

- But in any case, the non-adoption of this law can only have negative connotations for any country engaged in international trade, because in that case, in addition to the standard checks performed on remittances between countries and banks, additional checks and controls will have to be carried out, which will only complicate and slow down trade. There is nothing good in that - Krajina emphasized.

The total value of the two-year credit arrangement with the IMF is around 1.2 billion marks, and BiH has already used half of these funds so far.