According to current law in BiH, a driver’s license must be renewed every ten years, as the license is valid for that period, and it costs 60 KM.
Saša Magazinović, a representative of the SDP BiH in the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliament, has submitted an initiative to the parliamentary procedure requesting that older drivers, i.e. pensioners, and those with reduced health capacity, in the future not pay the full fee for renewing their driver’s license. According to current law in BiH, driver’s licenses are renewed every ten years, because the license is valid for that period, and it costs 60 KM. However, those ten years do not apply to pensioners and those with health problems.
Three years
The term of validity of a driver’s license for retirees is three years, which practically means that they have to renew their driver’s license three times in a period of 10 years, which forces them to pay even 180 KM instead of 60 KM. Those with impaired health are in an even more unenviable situation, because in some situations they have to renew their driver’s license every two years, that is, even five times in a period of ten years, while an “ordinary” driver does it once. In this way, they are forced to pay as much as 300 KM in order to continue driving. Magazinović therefore believes that this discrimination must be abolished. His proposal is based on the payment of a fee for the renewal of a driver’s license in such a way that its amount is calculated according to the length of the document’s validity. In translation, if to extend the term of validity of a driver’s license for ten years one has to pay 60 KM, which is 6 KM per year, Magazinović is of the opinion that pensioners should then pay for only three years the validity of their license, which is 18 KM. while drivers with reduced health capacity who renew their driver’s license every two years would pay 12 KM instead of the previous 60 KM. Thus, Magazinović points out, all drivers in Bosnia and Herzegovina would pay the same price for renewing their driver’s license over a period of 10 years, which is not the case today.
Discrimination
“According to official data, 826,707 people aged 65 and over live in Bosnia and Herzegovina, of which 170,687 have a valid driver’s license. All of them, along with tens of thousands of those who, for health and other reasons, get their driver’s license for a period of less than 10 years are discriminated against in such a way that they pay many times more to renew their driver’s license,” this representative emphasized. He reminded that European standards in the field of preventing discrimination dictate that the elderly and citizens with health problems should have the right to adjustments that take into account their specific needs, but also limited financial possibilities. “In the case of the Driving License Regulations, this was not taken into account, so not only were pensioners and people with reduced health capabilities not in a privileged position, but they were practically punished by having to pay a much higher amount of the driving license fee for the same period of time.” , emphasized Magazinović, and added: “If we strive for a society of equals as everyone claims, then there will be no problem in enabling over 200,000 drivers to pay the same price for renewing their driver’s license as everyone else, especially considering that the majority of the total number of discriminated against are made up of pensioners whose incomes are significantly lower than those who pay a lower price in this situation”.
Source: bljesak.info
