Šaljić for NAP: I initiated the abolition of the 'right fee', which makes investors bypass the Sarajevo Canton, while millions of KM go to the RS!

(Patria) - Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina representative Jasmin Šaljić initiated a proposal to amend the Concessions Law at the last session of the Sarajevo Canton Assembly.

In a statement to the Patria News Agency, Šaljić explains that he initiated the abolition of the right fee, which drives away foreign investors and discourages domestic ones.

“This is a one-time fee that exists only in the Sarajevo Canton. No such fee exists in any neighboring country, nor in the RS entity. It is a fee that is paid immediately upon investment, and because of it, investors bypass the Sarajevo Canton, and thus hundreds of millions of KM go to other cantons or the other entity,” says Šaljić.

His initiative proposes deleting paragraph 2 of Article 24 of the Concessions Law, which defines the deletion of paragraph (2).

“If, for example, an investor, domestic or foreign, appears and wants a concession for, say, 20-30 years, this fee is calculated for the entire period and is paid in a lump sum at the start. And these are millions of KM. For this reason, we have lost about 500 million KM in the past few months alone. Investors bypassed us and went to the RS entity, investing 200 million in Rogatica and 300 million in Trebinje in renewable energy sources,” Šaljić told Patria.

He adds that the one-time fee has ruined quarries in the Sarajevo Canton.

“So, everyone is operating at between 20 and 30 percent capacity. Many only have security services. Because of this fee, domestic investors avoid taking quarries under concession. Then the Sarajevo Canton Government, through the relevant ministry, buys embankment and stone from the Republika Srpska,” states Šaljić.

A worrying fact, Šaljić points out, is that material for everything done in Sarajevo over the past three years was imported from the Republika Srpska.

“All the stone for the railway came from the Lapišnica and Bijela brda quarries on Jahorina. According to estimates from our investors who contacted me, in 2024 alone, the Sarajevo Canton government imported stone worth 65 million KM. That's 65 million KM for one year, and that's without asphalt bases. Since gravel is also used in asphalt bases, that's another 25 million KM,” explains Šaljić.

He says it is absurd that the quarries in the Sarajevo Canton are closer and that the material is, according to analyses, of much higher quality.

Šaljić concludes that the current majority has not changed this law because, in all likelihood, it could involve favoring certain business entities.

To the authorities in the Sarajevo Canton, who often complain about the reduction of their weight, he says: “Hundreds of millions of KM went to material from the RS, while we had better material in the Sarajevo Canton.”