Novalić is collapsing the real sector: Businesspeople will be forced to lay off workers due to new levies

The coalition partners SDA and SBB, together with HDZBiH, do not want to annul the controversial  amendments to the Rulebook on the Application of the Law on Income Tax of the FBiH, which comes into force tomorrow, despite alarming warnings from employers that the new levies will suffocate businesspeople, who will be forced to literally take 10 percent of the new tax from workers' pockets, writes the Patria news agency.  

This means that, in addition to the high levies already paid by employers in the FBiH, they will also pay additional taxes on holiday pay and meal allowances for workers. Wage levies in the FBiH, which amount to around 70 percent, are among the highest in the region, and there are no indications that they could be reduced; instead, new ones are being added.

The government of Fadil Novalić now wants to further increase levies. In this way, it aims to cover the deficit in the budget.

It is indicative that this is being done by a man who continuously emphasizes the story that he comes from the "real sector." Shouldn't someone like that be looking to relieve businesspeople, thereby increasing the number of jobs, instead of now "realistically destroying" them, all for the sake of a bloated bureaucratic apparatus.

Of course, civil servants will not feel that 10 percent on their backs, because their employer (governments at all levels) will not reduce their net income due to the new levy, but will cover that amount from the budget, i.e., from the pockets of citizens.

Employers, workers, and unions warn that this will temporarily fill the budget, but that it will subsequently lead to the closure of many companies in the country and layoffs. Employers in the FBiH can no longer withstand the high levies.

- The government will increase revenues by ten percent, but it will lose ten percent of jobs. In the end, it will gain nothing – Safudin Čengić from the Association of Employers of the FBiH tells Patria and adds:

-I believe that the new levies are hasty, without an adequate approach, without strategic moves in terms of a long-term solution to the problem. It is certain that employers will express great dissatisfaction and be forced to reduce the number of employees after the new government levies.

Čengić warns that the main problem in the FBiH is the huge and unnecessary administrative apparatus. The government maintains high levies because of the overly large administration, even though there is no great benefit from it, or almost none, except that it serves as a reliable voting machine for the parties.

-It is clear that the government does not want to cut the branch it is sitting on, because the administration is a voting machine, but one day, because of that branch, the whole tree will fall – warns Čengić.