VULIĆ: WE WILL NOT ALLOW TRANSFER OF EXCISE TAXES-RELATED COMPETENCES

SARAJEVO, MARCH 16 /SRNA/ – Head of the SNSD Caucus in the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly Sanja Vulić says the Caucus members will not support a proposal to abolish or reduce fuel excise taxes, emphasizing that it represents a disregard of constitutional competences.

"It is necessary to respect constitutional competences; this is a matter for the governments of Republika Srpska and the Federation of BiH. The attempt to make a government out of the Council of Ministers and the BiH Parliamentary Assembly out of the House of Representatives is unacceptable to us, thus we will not support it," Vulić stressed.

She added that the SNSD Caucus opposes the urgency in considering the proposed law and, in general, the proposed amendment due to the disregard of constitutional competence, namely the attempted transfer of competence.

"As long as we sit in this House, we will not support that," Vulić stated, emphasizing that in this case, the FBiH is also being protected.

Saša Magazinović of the SDP BiH submitted a request to the House of Representatives for urgent review of the Bill amending the Excise Law in BiH, which would allow the Council of Ministers, in the event of market disruption or other justified reasons, to make a decision on the temporary abolition or reduction of excise taxes on petroleum products.

Explaining the law, Magazinović said that the decision would be made for a maximum period of six months within a year and reminded that countries in the region have already taken action to control fuel prices amid the current energy crisis.

Branislav Borenović considered the law for urgent amendment justified in order to curb the soaring fuel prices in BiH.