Number of traffic violations reduced in the Federation, but revenue collection also declined

The government's plan to improve the collection of traffic fines by reducing the fine by 50% if the driver pays within ten days has not yielded the desired results, at least in the first five months since the law came into effect, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria (NAP).

Since August 14 last year, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, following the example of neighboring Croatia and Serbia, introduced a new Law on Misdemeanors under which drivers who pay the fine for a traffic violation within ten days are forgiven half of the amount, i.e., they pay only 50 percent of the already imposed amount.

The goal of the new law, which forgives 50 percent of the fine amount to traffic offenders, is to improve the efficiency of collection and reduce the number of cases that have been dragging on in courts for years due to traffic violations.

According to data from the Agency for Identification Documents, Registers and Data Exchange of Bosnia and Herzegovina (IDDEEA), citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina owe the state a total of about 100 million KM based on unpaid traffic fines.

However, it seems that the FBiH government's plan to improve the collection of traffic fines has not brought the desired results. In the last five months (from August 2014 to February 2015), 12% fewer fines were collected than in the same period last year, confirmed for the Patria agency from IDDEEA.

From August last year to February this year, drivers in the Federation committed 222,625 violations. Of these, 59% or 130,611 violations were collected. Just over 70% of drivers used the option to pay 50% of the fine.
In the same period a year earlier, i.e., from August 2013 to February 2014, drivers in the Federation committed 293,297 violations, but the collection of fines in that period was better. 71% of the imposed fines were collected, writes Patria.