BOSNIA: LACING UP THE GLOVES FOR THIS YEAR'S

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SARAJEVO 001885 SIPDIS TREASURY FOR WILLIAM LINDQUIST E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EFIN ECON BK SUBJECT: BOSNIA: LACING UP THE GLOVES FOR THIS YEAR'S BUDGET BATTLES REF: SARAJEVO 1413 ¶1. Summary. This year's budget-setting drama in BiH is in full swing. Debates at the state level illustrate the existential crisis it faces - the budget wars are essentially seen as a zero-sum game between funding the state vs. the entities. While a state-level Law on a National Fiscal Council (NFC) was passed this year to provide a framework upon which these budgets could be developed in a rational manner, we are already seeing its weaknesses. The NFC law provided no mechanism to enforce its decisions, and no deadlock-breaking mechanism. The repercussions of these oversights are being made clear by the Presidency's December 10 rejection of the NFC-proposed state budget framework - there is no contingency in the law to address such a rejection. Meanwhile, the Federation continues its unfunded, profligate spending for the current fiscal year, but the Government on December 18 passed a 2009 budget some KM 280m ($187m) less than this year's. Where these cuts will come from will likely be the subject of lively Parliamentary debates. The passage of a 2009 budget in the Republika Srpska (RS) has experienced some trouble in the RS National Assembly (RSNA) due to protests from pensioners who claim it is too small to address their needs, and from the opposition which claims it is too large given projections of a sluggish RS economy. End Summary. //The National Fiscal Council and the State// ¶2. The state passed legislation in July creating a National Fiscal Council (NFC) (reftel),which was to bring some order to a normally chaotic budget process. The mandate of the NFC is to create a budget framework for the state, the two entities and Brcko District, all users of the Single Account into which VAT and other indirect tax revenue is deposited. The Single Account is the main source of revenue for the state-level government, but only a partial source of revenue for the entities, which collect direct taxes and other fees. Once foreign debt obligations and the state budget are funded, the remaining funds in the Single Account are divided between the entities and Brcko District according to an agreed coefficient (currently 64.39% to the Federation, 32.06% to the RS and 3.55% to Brcko). The higher the state budget, the less the entities will receive. In the past, the entities (and in particular the Federation) have created budgets based on overly optimistic projections of what they will receive from the Single Account. ¶3. The NFC was supposed to change that. NFC members - the State and entity finance ministers and prime ministers - met in the fall and agreed to a framework by which the state must limit its 2009 budget increase to 12%, and the entities to a 6% increase, based on Single Account revenue projections. The only dissenting vote at the time was state-level Finance Minister Dragan Vrankic, who claimed that with only a 12% budget increase the state could not possibly continue to set up and strengthen the institutions required for EU accession. The NFC's decision was endorsed by the political parties signatory to the Prud agreement (SDA, HDZ and SNSD),and the budget framework passed the Council of Ministers and the BiH Parliament. When it reached the Presidency, however, the Bosniak and Croat members (Haris Silajdzic of SBiH and Zeljko Komsic of SDP) refused to endorse it, citing Vrankic's argument. They passed an alternate version of the budget on December 10 over the objection of the Serb member of the Presidency (Nebojsa Radmanovic, SNSD),with an additional increase of KM 200m ($133m). Nearly half of this (KM 97m or $64.7m) is slated for the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees for refugee returns (always a politically popular issue among Bosniaks, and to an lesser extent, Croats) and the rest to support other state institutions. ¶4. The NFC law contains no mechanism to enforce its budget framework, and therefore no way to address its rejection by the Presidency. So the Presidency's modified budget now goes back to Parliament. Outvoted President Radmanovic announced in a press conference that the budget of Silajdzic and Komsic was designed to provoke social and political unrest, since any increase in the state budget will mean less funding for entity budgets responsible for social benefit payments. Serb Member of Parliament (MP) Dusanka Majkic said that no SNSD MP would vote for the new budget. If no budget is passed by the end of the year, the state will enter 2009 on a continuing resolution. The NFC legislation contained no mechanism to SARAJEVO 00001885 002 OF 002 break such a deadlock, which, as we predicted, is now proving to be another major weakness of the law. //The Federation// ¶5. The Federation's 2008 budget deficit still overshadows any news on the development of the 2009 budget. The latest media reporting indicates the 2008 budget is currently facing a deficit of KM 440m ($293m) (the total budget is nearly KM 1.9 billion, or nearly $1.27m). This follows a year in which Prime Minister Brankovic repeatedly made promises to raise the benefits of invalid war veterans and other socially disadvantaged individuals over the protests of Finance Minister Bevanda. On December 18, the Federation Government finally presented its 2009 budget proposal, which is some KM 280m ($187m) lower than last year's (KM 1.56 billion, or around $1.04b). The Government debated for several days on where to make such cuts, and they settled on a portion coming from social benefit payments, including from the financing of invalid war veterans, with additional cuts to be made by rationalizing the bloated government bureaucracy. This will no doubt stir a lively debate in Parliament, as well as spark demonstrations from invalid war veterans and other recipients of social benefits who will be disadvantaged by it. Parliament will consider the proposed budget during extraordinary sessions scheduled for December 29 and 30. //The Republika Srpska// ¶6. The 2009 budget for the Republika Srpska (RS) passed its first reading during the RSNA's Dec. 2-3 session. Following the NFC framework, the budget calls for a 6% increase over 2008, for a total of KM 1.67 billion (approx $1.1 billion). The largest budget item is the Ministry of Labor and War Veterans (KM 380.2m or $253.5m). Pensioners were unhappy because they say as currently written, the budget will not be sufficient to fund pensions past April or May. While the RS Finance Minister hid behind the NFC framework to explain why the increase would not be higher, the opposition claimed that the budget was unrealistic and that the RS economy is not strong enough to generate enough revenues to fund such an ambitious budget. The RS Government met again on Dec. 12 to modify the budget based on RSNA concerns, and will forward a new version to the RSNA for a second reading at the Dec. 22 RSNA session. //Comment// ¶7. This year's budget fiasco is somewhat different from what we have come to expect. The RS strategy is often to deny anything that could strengthen the state, and indeed, the RS's opening gambit was to declare it would block any increase to the state budget above 3.9%. However, once the NFC rejected State Finance Minister Vrankic's initial proposal of a 24% state budget increase in favor of a 12% increase, the RS seems to have realized that it had more to gain by falling in line. By adhering to the NFC law, both by agreeing to the NFC's framework for the state and for the RS itself, it appears above reproach. Silajdzic and Komsic, in trying to protect the state by getting it the resources it needs (while garnering political points by supporting refugee returns),rejected the NFC proposal but now appear obstructionist. While the Office of the High Representative (OHR) and other observers agree that a 12% increase to the state budget is insufficient for the effective functioning of state institutions, a larger increase is unrealistic given revenue projections. There is little chance the Presidency's proposed budget will pass Parliament in the face of Serb opposition, which means we will likely have the same outcome as last year: a continuing resolution with no end in sight. The proposed cuts to the Federation budget will likely have a difficult time passing Parliament, and until we see the latest version of the RS budget, it is hard to judge what exactly the final version will look like. End Comment. ENGLISH