At the end of July 2020, VAT and excise that companies owe the state amount more than half a billion marks, the spokesman of the Indirect Taxation Authority (ITA) of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ratko Kovacevic, confirmed for “Avaz“.
The exact debt amounts to 549,102,317.00 BAM, while the balance of the debt in the same period last year was 588,397,398.90 BAM.
The Indirect Taxation Authority has published an updated list of debtors, which includes more than 2,400 companies. The ITA explains that the actual number is much longer, because those companies that owe more than 25,000 BAM are published.
In the first place, the debtor is KJKP GRAS, which owes more than 22 million BAM, which is not a surprise, considering the condition of this Sarajevo public company. In second place is “Bosmal” from Sarajevo, whose debt is more than nine million BAM.
“Due to non-payment of the obligation, a forced collection procedure is initiated. According to the ITA, out of the total amount that went to the procedure of forced collection, the Administration has so far managed to collect about 68 percent of the debt, which is a significant amount,” Kovacevic explained.
Economic expert Zeljko Ricka explains for “Avaz” that this is a big problem for BiH.
“There is a provision in the law that when a company loses the prerequisites for establishment, for example a deposit of 50,000 BAM fjoint-stockock companies, the state should automatically shut it down. However, we do not do that, and companies use it. Nobody is preventing those who had debts from forming new companies and thus avoiding paying the debt,” explains Ricka.
The state, he states, must have evidence that the company cheated it and prove it in court.
“It is a huge problem and there are a lot of such companies in BiH that cheat the state in that way,” Ricka emphasized.
