Session of the FBiH Government: Amendments to the Law on Advocacy and Profit Tax sent to Parliament

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The Government of the Federation of BiH, at today's session held in Mostar, adopted and sent to parliamentary procedure under a shortened procedure the Bill amending the Law on Advocacy of FBiH, which stipulates that the tariff shall be adopted by the Federal Ministry of Justice, in consultation with the Bar Association of the Federation of BiH, while the remuneration for court-appointed defense attorneys shall be determined by this federal ministry.

The main reason for amending this law is the implementation of the conclusion of the House of Peoples of the Parliament of the Federation of BiH, which tasked the Federal Ministry of Justice with amending the tariffs for notary and lawyer fees and, within 30 days, adjusting their amounts to the standard and financial circumstances of citizens of the Federation of BiH, reducing the tariff amounts by an appropriate percentage.

The Federal Government also adopted and sent to the Parliament of FBiH under an urgent procedure the Bill amending and supplementing the Law on Profit Tax. One of the novelties is the deletion of the provision that obliged legal entities to submit a financial report, a profit and loss statement, in hard copy, which they submitted to both the FBiH Tax Administration and the Financial-Information Agency, with the aim of reducing administration for taxpayers. Namely, the FBiH Tax Administration has access to the FIA database, so additional documentation is not required, announced the Public Relations Office of the Government of FBiH.

Today, several business reports of companies under the jurisdiction of the Federal Ministry of Energy, Mining and Industry for 2018 were adopted. The total loss of industrial companies last year amounted to KM 115,000,343. Negative financial results were recorded by Konfekcija Borac d.d. Travnik with KM 2,904,645, Aluminij d.d. Mostar with KM 70,425,910, KTK Visoko d.d. Visoko with KM 13,149,810, ArcelorMittal Zenica d.o.o. with KM 3,311,560, and Energoinvest d.d. Sarajevo with KM 10,948,429.

Mining companies in FBiH (mines within the Concern of JP Elektroprivreda BiH d.d. Sarajevo and RMU Banovići d.d. Banovići) finished the year before last with 6,869,088 tons of coal produced, which is 96.23 percent compared to 2017, or 87.05 percent compared to the production plan according to the energy balance for 2018.

The Government of the Federation of BiH accepted the information on the report of the Commission for Control of the Dedicated Use of Funds collected from the fee for settling the debt to the Russian Federation for the supply of natural gas in the period 1992-1995, planned in the Budget of FBiH for 2018, and adopted the report of this commission. As stated, from the total collected special fee funds by 31.12.2018 in the amount of KM 1,349,425.33 and the initial balance funds in the sub-account as of 9.1.2018 of KM 176,019.65, a total of KM 1,364,189 was transferred by 31.12.2018 to Energoinvest, which transferred funds equivalent to 822,120 US dollars to Gazprom Export.

By adopting the report on the control of the dedicated use of funds by the Operator - Terminals of the Federation d.o.o. Sarajevo, collected from the fee for establishing reserves of petroleum products for 2018, the Federal Government tasked this business entity to submit to the Federal Ministry of Energy, Mining and Industry a report on the status of unspent funds generated from the fee for establishing reserves of petroleum products, generated by year and cumulatively for the period 2014-2018, according to the purposes determined by the Decision on the method of dedicated use of these funds for that period.

The Government of FBiH today gave prior consent to the Federal Ministry of Energy, Mining and Industry in the process of issuing energy permits to the business entities VE Gradina d.o.o. Tomislavgrad for the construction of the first phase of the Gradina wind farm, Relax d.o.o. Posušje for the construction of VE Oštrc, Tomkup d.o.o. Tomislavgrad for the construction of VE Baljci, and Kamen-Dent d.o.o. Mostar for the construction of VE Pakline 2.