Draft Law on the Budget of Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina Determined

The Council of Ministers of BiH at its session in Sarajevo unanimously determined the Draft Law on the Budget of Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and international obligations of BiH for 2018 with suggestions accepted at the session. The Ministry of Finance and Treasury of BiH will submit the Draft Budget to the Presidency of BiH, which is authorized to propose it.

The budget for financing institutions remains 950 million KM, although the total requests from beneficiaries were higher by 333,727,000 KM or 36 percent. At the same time, revenues for servicing external debt amount to 1,004,062,329.00 KM and are about 7.1 million KM lower compared to 2017, so the total budget amounts to 1,954,062,329.00 KM.

This structured budget follows the priorities of the Council of Ministers of BiH regarding the European Partnership, but also supports austerity measures in the institutions of BiH. The budget includes, among other things, funds for the implementation of general elections in 2018, for multi-year projects of budget users and for making the State Prison functional, and funds are projected for the calculation of salaries for police officers due to the legally adopted change in their coefficient.

The Council of Ministers of BiH, at the proposal of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury, also unanimously adopted the Framework Budget Document (FBD) of the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the period from 2018 to 2020.

The FBD follows and supports BiH's reforms in the process of joining the European Union and the implementation of Bosnia and Herzegovina's accession to the Partnership for Peace (PfP) and its further NATO path, as well as the implementation of previously defined 14 strategic goals, including economic development, increasing employment, and reducing poverty in BiH.

According to the FBD, the total level of expenditures of BiH institutions, excluding external debt servicing, amounts to 950 million KM annually for all three years, and the allocation of indirect taxes from the Indirect Taxation Authority's Single Account amounts to 750 million KM, which is at the level of the budget from previous years. This practically means that salaries and benefits in BiH institutions will remain at the previous level for the next three years and will not be increased.

The session also unanimously adopted the updated Public Investment Program/Development-Investment Program of the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2018-2020, as support for the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the institutions of BiH in planning investments and making better investment decisions.

The Ministry of Finance and Treasury has practically now updated the Public Investment Program and harmonized it with the budget of institutions for the next year and will submit it to the Presidency of BiH.    

The updated program contains data on a total of 277 projects for the period 2018-2020 with a total value of one billion and 946.66 million KM. Of this, one billion and 261.48 million KM relates to 175 projects in implementation, and 685.18 million KM to 102 candidate projects. The value of projects that directly contribute to socio-economic development amounts to 938.96 million KM.