Tomorrow, 7 Million KM in Debt to Be Paid Out

Although farmers gathered around the Association of Farmers of BiH held protests in front of the BiH Parliament building today, the Coordination of Federal Agricultural Associations and Unions distanced themselves from these protests. Dragan Pavlović, president of the Farmers' Union of FBiH and a member of the Coordination, told the BiH news agency Patria that they received information that the debt from last year, amounting to about 7 million KM for production, will be paid out tomorrow.

- Today we spoke with the advisor to the Prime Minister of FBiH (Nermin Nikšić, op.a.), Mr. Ivica Mladen, who told us that the payment will be made tomorrow, and the remaining 10 million by May 1st – says Pavlović.

As he said, the largest portion of the funds will go to farmers from the Posavina region, as they have received almost nothing in the last year and a half.

- We understand the current crisis in the Federation of BiH, and someone is using it for political purposes – states Pavlović, who believes that the debts for incentives will most likely be paid from the funds of “Elektroprenos” that the Federation of BiH and RS will receive, but everything depends on when these funds will be operational.

Speaking about the Proposal for the Program of Utilization of Funds for Agricultural Incentives for this year, Pavlović told NAP that they coordinated their Proposal with the Minister of Agriculture, Water Management, and Forestry of FBiH (FMPVŠ) Jerko Ivanković Lijanović and with the President of the Committee for Agriculture, Water Management, and Forestry of the Parliament of FBiH Enver Mehmedović.

- We sent our Proposal to the Committee, the Government of FBiH, and FMPVŠ. We specified the amounts per production, and it amounts to about 68 million KM, as foreseen by the FBiH budget for this year. The Proposal submitted by the relevant Ministry to the Committee would not cover a budget of even 120 million KM with planned increases. They included everything that was proposed, without specifying the planned amounts per item. That is why we cannot support such a Program – emphasizes Pavlović.

According to Pavlović, Lijanović's Proposal is currently before the Committee for Agriculture, Water Management, and Forestry of the Parliament of FBiH.

- In our Proposal, we excluded items for promotion and the “Buy Domestic” project, plus for exporters in animal production, 10% of the budget is foreseen, but it does not state how much, what, or how incentives for that are realized – says Pavlović.