The emergency session of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH is scheduled for October 30 with only one item on the agenda, namely the budget for this year.
This will be the fourth attempt to adopt the budget, with the fact that, unlike the previous three times, this time the budget was proposed in the regular procedure, i.e. in the first reading, which means that there is a possibility to amend it.
The budget was proposed in the amount of 2.678 billion KM, with the provision that the amount of 1.451 billion KM is planned for the financing of BiH institutions, and 1.226 billion KM for external debt servicing. From that amount, KM 803 million will be allocated for the external debt of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Republika Srpska will return KM 403 million, or KM 66.7 million less than was allocated in 2024.
By the way, the budget that was proposed to the deputies in the BiH Presidency was adopted by the votes of Željko Komšić and Denis Bećirović, members of the BiH Presidency, who outvoted Željka Cvijanović, a member of the BiH Presidency. This very overvoting, among other things, was the reason why the budget did not receive support the previous three times. In addition, the reason for the failure to adopt the budget was that it was practically unenforceable because the income and expenditure differed significantly. Also, in the originally proposed budget, the items on the return of the BHRT debt, the financing of seven cultural institutions at the BiH level, as well as the allocation of tens of millions of KM for armaments were disputed.
The SNSD MPs, as well as MPs from the opposition political parties from Republika Srpska, were against such a proposed budget, although some representatives of the “troika” parties, i.e. SDP, NiP and Our Party, said that the budget was not good and that it should not be adopted in that form.
After it was seen that the proposed budget could not pass through the emergency procedure, the deputies decided that it should go to the regular procedure, so that on Thursday at the session it will be discussed in the first reading, and before that it will have to go through the commission stages. After the commission comes before the deputies, the budget will be amended, and judging by earlier discussions, dozens and even hundreds of amendments to the proposed budget are expected, they say. Independent.
