The Legislative-Legal Commission of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Committee on Economic and Financial Policy, and the Commission for Local Self-Government of the same House supported the Request of the Municipality of Tešanj for protection of local community rights to the local self-government of the Municipality of Tešanj. The Legislative-Legal Commission of the House of Representatives refers to the provision of Article 4 of the European Charter of Local Self-Government.
Namely, in March this year, the Municipality of Tešanj sent a request to the Constitutional Court of the Federation of BiH for protection of the rights of the local community in which the right of citizens to equality before the law was violated, concerning the distribution of public revenues more than 60,000 inhabitants privileged for a certain amount from public revenues thus violating the right of equality of inhabitants of municipalities numbering less than 60,000 people.
“It is good that the Parliament of the Federation of BiH has reached the widest possible consensus on this issue. Representatives from all parties supported our request. Maybe someone does not understand at this moment why this is such an important issue, but if the Constitutional Court of the Federation of BiH makes a positive decision in favor of the Municipality of Tešanj, it will mean not only more justice, but also a huge shift and change of approach in evaluating work, creating new value and measurability of results as a whole. Because, along with the Municipality of Tešanj, this problem affects almost one and a half million citizens of the Federation of BiH“, said Suad Huskić, the appellant and the mayor of Tešanj.
With around 43,000 inhabitants and a total turnover last year, Tešanj, with 1.45 billion BAM, ranks sixth in the Federation of BiH.
However, when it comes to the return of public revenues, the Municipality of Tešanj is on the 63rd place out of a total of 72 in terms of VAT refunds in relation to the turnover of fiscal devices. Only 0.29% of turnover is returned through VAT to the municipal budget, while the average of all FBiH municipalities is 0.495%. Also, the Municipality of Tešanj is on the 50th place out of a total of 72 in terms of VAT refund in relation to the number of inhabitants. 94.7 BAM of VAT per capita is returned to the municipal budget, while municipalities that have twice less turnover than Tešanj have 106 BAM per capita.
“The current way of public revenues distribution to local communities is not only unfair because it does not treat all citizens in the same way, but it is also discouraging. Those who create new value, produce more and invest in development are actually “punished”. Such a system basically rewards inaction and endangers the development of the whole society in the long run.
This is not just about Tešanj, in this way we are fighting for equal rights of all municipalities – and thus all citizens in FBiH, which are guaranteed by the Constitution. The state is built by fair laws and fair implementation“, pointed out Mayor Suad Huskić.
