No urgency: Excises and other bills up for regular procedure

With 19 votes for and 19 votes against, the delegates of House of Representatives of Parliamentary Assembly BiH have decided that the bills of increase of excises, payments to joint account and distribution of income, changes to the law on system of indirect tax in BiH, and the proposal of the law on deposit insurance in BH banks, should all be subject of a regular procedure.

SBB (4), SDA (6) and HDZ BiH (4) voted for, and against were SDP, DF, and Alliance for changes and 4 delegates of SDA Semsudin Mehmedovic, Sadik Ahmetovic, Salko Sokolovic and Senad Sepic.

It means that the deadline set by IMF for adoption of the bill of approval of installment of 155 million KM has not been met, which is likely to trigger changes to the existing arrangement with IMF.

The delegates led a hot debate about possible consequences of increase of excises for 15 pfennigs on farmers and citizens. They also requested the Council of ministers to say if any pressure was imposed on them to adopt the bills. The delegates openly said that they indeed received calls from some embassies and various other lobbyists requesting them to support increase of excises.