Bosnian Serbs Block Fuel Price Cuts in Parliament

A proposal by two deputies in the House of Representatives of the Bosnian parliament to suspend excise duties on fuel in order to reduce ever higher prices failed to pass, after representatives from the Serb-majority entity Republika Srpska opposed it.

Snježana Novaković Bursać, from the main Bosnian Serb SNSD party, voted against it, saying that she was "not convinced that the abolition of excise duties on fuel will make it cheaper.

"We are in favour of abolishing excise duties on fuel, but no one has convinced me so far that abolishing excise duties will make fuel cheaper," she said.

Fuel prices in Bosnia have soared to 3.91 Bosnian marks - 1.95 euros - at gas stations. The cheapest one in the capital Sarajevo sells gas for 3.41 Bosnian marks, or 1.75 euros, for a liter of diesel.

Another measure rejected on Monday was temporary suspension of customs rates on fuel entering the country. Again, representatives of the SNSD voted against the measure designed to control rising prices due to inflation.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, living costs in Bosnia have skyrocketed following fast rising fuel prices.

The average paycheck in Bosnia and Herzegovina is a bit more than 500 euros a month. However, this figure is deceptive and most workers work for less.

The unemployment rate in March remained high, at 30.7 per cent. More than a half of unemployed are women - 57.68 per cent.

The cost of a consumer basket for a four-member family as calculated by the Federation of Independent Trade Unions for Bosnia for May 2022 was 2,639.48 marks or 1.212,42 euros.

"The average salary covers [only] covers 41.52 percent of that consumer basket," the trade union federation points out.

The total value of...