BiH Budget for 2023 Adopted, No Salary Increase for Officials

(Patria) - At today's session of the House of Representatives of the PSBiH, the Bill on Amendments to the Law on Salaries and Benefits in the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina was adopted under an urgent procedure, proposed by the Presidency of BiH. The law was adopted unanimously. All 39 representatives voted FOR.

The proposed bill seeks to add a new Article 7c to the Law on Salaries and Benefits in the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which states that, exceptionally from Article 7 of this law, salaries and benefits of appointed and elected officials in BiH institutions with a coefficient above 8.0 will be calculated using a base of 535 KM.

These amendments will keep the salaries of appointed and elected officials in BiH institutions at their current level, regardless of the increase in the base amount to 600 KM for employees in BiH institutions, which the Council of Ministers of BiH adopted in order to improve the material status of employees due to the general trend of rising prices.

Predrag Kožul (HDZ) stated that they abstained from voting on the procedure.

“Some colleagues who today advocate for solutions that I also agree with, that high salaries should not increase, and to bring everything within acceptable frameworks, I will remind you, I am glad that colleague Begić mentioned it, there was a law proposed by HDZ, which reduced the ratio to 1:8. This law needs some clarification, because it has an unusual wording, it says that coefficients above 8 will be calculated differently. This needs to be clarified, what does it mean, are these coefficients greater than 8 or are coefficients of 8 included as well,” said Kožul, adding that ministers and deputy ministers will have the same salary.

“This law will pass, but this law urgently needs to be replaced by a better and systemic solution,” Kožul added.

Šerif Špago (SDA) stated today that three months have passed since he submitted amendments to the Law on Salaries, and that his proposal is more comprehensive and better than this one.

“Regardless of the anomalies, we will support this law and consider it a temporary solution until the Council of Ministers finally resolves this problem systemically,” stated Špago, adding that it is important for this Law to be adopted before the Budget is adopted.

He also stated that they will request, by conclusion, that the House of Peoples also consider this law under an urgent procedure.

Saša Magazinović (SDP) emphasized that the law is not perfect, but that if the Council of Ministers had proposed a systemic solution, the Presidency would not have had to deal with this.

“The Council of Ministers did adopt a conclusion that it will systematically resolve the Law on Salaries within three months. I hope it will finally separate the salaries of officials from those of employees in institutions. This is a limited law, so it is not the members of the Presidency who claim this is the best solution, but it is the only one proposed and it shows the responsibility of the members of the Presidency,” stated Magazinović, clarifying that he will support this law.

Šemsudin Mehmedović stated that there have been many proposals so far, but that the House of Peoples has rejected all attempts.

“Many previous proposals were of higher quality, but that does not prevent us from supporting this proposal. However, I fear that this is another deception and that it will fail in the House of Peoples,” said Mehmedović.

Jasmin Emrić (NES) also objected to the fact that this proposal comes from the Presidency, not the Council of Ministers of BiH.

“We need a new legal solution, a separate calculation for elected and appointed officials. We need a separate law, to separate them from civil servants. We will support this proposal, and if the House of Peoples adopts it, although I am skeptical,” Emrić said during the debate.

Also adopted today was the Budget of Institutions for 2023.

Total revenues, receipts, and financing of BiH institutions within the budget for 2023 amount to 1,315,400,000 KM, which is an increase of 241.8 million KM compared to the budget of BiH institutions for 2022.

The Bill on the Budget of BiH Institutions and BiH's International Obligations for 2023 was determined by the Presidency of BiH at an extraordinary session on March 20, and the following day the Bill was sent to the parliamentary procedure for adoption under an urgent procedure.