Initiatives for Aiding Real Sector at Session of Parliamentary Committee for Finance and Budget

During the last session of the Committee on Finance and Budget of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, discussions included the Proposal law on amendments and supplements to the Law on value added-tax and Proposal law on amendments and supplements to the Law on indirect taxation procedure.

The agenda consisted of the following items:

1. Adopting Minutes from the 53^rd session of the Committee;
2. Discussion on the Proposal law on amendments and supplements to the Law on value-added tax – first Committee stage (proponent: representative Niko Lozan?i?);
3. Discussion on the Proposal law on amendments and supplements to the Law on indirect taxation procedure – first committee stage (proponent: representative Niko Lozan?i?);
4. Discussion on the Report on performed efficiency audit on the topic of the Prerequisites for the efficient work of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption and Coordination of the Fight against Corruption (author: Audit Office of the Institutions of BiH);
5. Discussion on the Report on the work of the Council of Ministers of BiH for 2013, in the section under the competence of the Committee on Finance and Budget of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, for the following institutions of BiH: 5.a Ministry of Finance and Treasury of BiH; 5.b Public Procurement Agency of BiH; 5.c Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH.

Members of the Committee, MPs of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of BiH, have adopted the principles of the Proposal of the law on value added tax which would prolong the deadline for submitting a VAT application by 20 days, thus moving the deadline from the 10^th to the 30^th day of the month. Although the proposal provides assistance for the real sector, it was not endorsed by the Indirect Taxation Authority and the Fiscal Council of BiH, which should provide a projection of the impact such a law would have on the continuity of funds management.

The Committee adopted the principles of the Proposal law on supplements and amendments to the Law on indirect taxation procedure, which concerns defining shorter deadlines for VAT returns and forwarded the Proposal to the Parliament for further consideration.

The Committee adopted the Report on performed efficiency audit on the topic of the Prerequisites for the efficient work of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption and Coordination of the Fight against Corruption. The Audit Office gave a positive opinion about the work of the Agency, based on the performed financial audit for 2013, and the Agency has already started implementing the recommendations from the Efficiency audit.

The Committee adopted the reports on the work of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury, the Public Procurement Agency and the Indirect Taxation Authority. The aforementioned items on the agenda of the Committee were also discussed during the session of the Parliamentary Assembly’s House of Representatives, whose conclusions are available here.