Assembly of ZDK adopts Budget for 2025 by majority vote

(Patria) - The Assembly of the Zenica-Doboj Canton (ZDK) adopted by majority vote and under an expedited procedure the Proposal for Amendments to the Budget for 2024 and the Proposal for the Budget for 2025, amounting to 699,305,650 BAM.

Total expenditures and outlays are planned, as explained by Finance Minister Dženana Čišija (DF), in the amount of 692,234,254 BAM, from which it follows that 7,071,396 BAM is planned to cover the current deficit from the previous period.

Only three amendments, one of which was formally invalid, were submitted within the legal deadline by SDP representatives, but after they were not accepted by the ZDK Government, the amendments did not receive support from the Assembly representatives either.

"The salary increase for all employees who receive their salaries from the cantonal budget is 10 percent compared to 2024. Also included is a salary increase of 10 percent for all employees who receive their salaries through transfers that the canton provides to their institutions. The execution of court judgments in the amount of 15.5 million BAM is planned, which represents the monitoring of the ZDK Action Plan. In absolute terms, the most significant expenditure categories are salaries at around 350 million BAM, current transfers at around 170 million BAM, capital transfers at 26 million BAM, material costs at 81 million BAM, and procurement of fixed assets at around 42.5 million BAM," said Čišija.

This is a record budget for that canton, significantly larger than the budget proposal adopted in December last year for this year in the amount of 594,874,450 BAM, which was increased to around 639 million BAM through today's adopted rebalancing, the second this year.

Prime Minister Nezir Pivić expressed satisfaction that the ZDK Budget for 2025, the Financial Plan of the ZDK Employment Service, and, at the previous session, the Financial Plan of the ZDK Health Insurance Institute were adopted with a large number of votes.

"It is important to emphasize that we are entering the New Year with all financial plans adopted. I believe we are one of the few cantons that has adopted and is entering the next year prepared, when it comes to the budget," said Pivić.

He reminded that all employees will receive salary increases and that the budget for sports will be increased from two to five million BAM, as reported by Fena.

"We have increased investments when it comes to the Ministry of Interior, Civil Protection... We have not reduced incentives for either the economy or agriculture. On the contrary, we worked to increase amounts in that segment as well. I believe that in the coming year we will also realize what we planned. Of course, all of this depends on revenues, and we will, accordingly, monitor the budget execution," said Pivić.

Opposition representatives had objections regarding the loan debt of 40,000,000 BAM, which is included in the rebalancing and was already planned in the budget proposal for this year, as well as the planned 65,000,000 BAM borrowing for 2025.

Pivić emphasized that part of the planned loan borrowing has been realized, while the realization of loan borrowing from the rebalancing will depend on whether the planned tranche from the budget of the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is obtained.

More than 70 percent of the ZDK budget, he said, represents constitutional and legal obligations that must be fulfilled.

The Financial Plan of the ZDK Employment Service for 2025 and the rebalancing of the Financial Plan of the ZDK Employment Service for this year were also adopted. As pointed out by the director of that institution, Josip Lovrić, the rebalancing increased funds from 27,592,000 to 29,639,000 BAM. The Financial Plan for the next year amounts to 31,782,000 BAM.

The proposal for a Decision on Amendments to the Decision on the Organization and Method of Performing Taxi Passenger Transport in the ZDK area and the Proposal for a Decision on the Appointment of the Cantonal Ombudsman of the ZDK were also adopted.

At the beginning of today's session, new representative Spahija Kozlić from Zenica took over the mandate and took the oath. Kozlić entered from the list of the Party of Democratic Action, replacing representative Erna Merdić-Smailhodžić from Zavidovići, who won the mandate of Mayor of Zavidovići in the recent local elections.