Žuljević: A billion marks in loans, presented as a gift, will be repaid by citizens

Aner Žuljević, delegate of the SDP BiH in the House of Peoples of the PFBIH sent an open letter regarding the new arrangement of BiH with the IMF, writes Patria.

- Considering the level of spectacle with which the new borrowing of over a billion KM is announced, as if it were a gift and not a loan, the ruling coalition at all levels continues the practice of complete lack of transparency.

The fact is that after the reform agenda, which was hidden for months, and the coordination mechanism adopted in complete secrecy, we now have a letter of intent to the IMF which, by its content, will determine the lives of all citizens in the next 10 years, and nothing is known about its content.

Only by disclosing the text of the Letter of Intent will we know the exact price of the billion marks in loans that BiH officially requested from the IMF yesterday.

After the very confused statements of the Prime Minister of the FBiH, Fadil Novalić, we can reasonably assume that for this money, the authorities have decided to privatize everything and anything, while carrying out tax "reforms" that will further reach into the pockets of workers, according to a well-known recipe, and apparently further burden the economy in the form of new excise taxes and other levies.

Given that the new borrowing of 550 million euros is taken under a grace period model of 4 years with a repayment term of 13 years, it is clear that this is a letter of intent that should have, first and foremost, been presented to the public, and then submitted to the state and entity Parliaments for consideration, because it will ultimately be the Parliaments that will implement a large part of what the executive authorities have agreed upon with the IMF.

It is clear to everyone well-intentioned in this country that this is probably the most important multi-mandate political decision that must first pass the filter of open expert and public discussion. Therefore, we call on the ruling coalition to convene extraordinary sessions of the state and entity parliaments and, in a televised broadcast, very clearly explain what obligations have been undertaken behind the curtain on behalf of the citizens of this country within the framework of the announced arrangement.

A billion marks in loans, which is presented as a gift, will be repaid by all citizens, so the minimum democratic obligation is to inform those same citizens about the obligations that the authorities have undertaken in their name - the letter states.