BiH's priorities should be energy, agriculture, exports, and education, Bosniak politics has ceded key sectors

(Patria) - Bosniak politics has ceded finances at both state and entity levels, and any politics not based on finances is an empty story, says academic and economist Husein Muratović.

He adds that there are no Bosniaks in the "Fiscal Council and the Management Board of the Indirect Taxation Authority, not even in a footnote".

"We have also ceded the ministries of justice at both state and entity levels, and we want to reclaim our property that our neighbors have taken over. How? When these ministers work in favor of those states, they do not work in favor of Bosnia and Herzegovina," Muratović told Hayat.

No less important is the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH.

Speaking about the borrowing of the FBiH Government, academic Muratović says that the Government is borrowing to stay in power and that the bond issuance should have been done on the domestic market, not on the London Stock Exchange.

The professor points out that it is incomprehensible to him that the Republika Srpska entity pays less than 30 percent into the single account of the Indirect Taxation Authority, while withdrawing significantly more funds. He presented data that Republika Srpska has received one billion KM more than it is entitled to so far and wonders if this is the price of power.

"In 2023, they paid only 18.18 percent (excise duties, road tolls, VAT), and they withdrew 34.85 percent, which is insane. I would not allow that. As for the unfairness within the Federation itself, data from last year show that the Tuzla Canton and Una-Sana Canton paid more than West Herzegovina Canton in road tolls to the Indirect Taxation Authority by 846 million KM. West Herzegovina Canton paid only 4.31 percent, and withdrew over 150 million KM. And there, expressways and highways are being built, while in Tuzla Canton and Una-Sana Canton there is not a single meter of highway or expressway," says the academic.

In addition to criticizing enormous public spending and the accumulation of administration, he points out what BiH's priorities should be: energy, agriculture, export sectors, and education.

Otherwise, the Fiscal Council consists of the Chairperson of the Council of Ministers of BiH, the state Minister of Finance, the Prime Ministers of the Republika Srpska and FBiH entities, and the entity Ministers of Finance.

Constituent peoples in BiH must have at least one representative in the Fiscal Council. The current situation is such that out of five members of the Fiscal Council, Bosniaks are represented only by the federal Prime Minister Nermin Nikšić. The other members are Borjana Krišto and Toni Kraljević from the HDZ, and Radovan Višković, Zora Vidović, and Srđan Amidžić from the SNSD.