It is humiliating and disappointing that we could not reach an agreement on the division of excise tax revenues so some of the funds would be directed for the construction of the Corridor Vc, Bosnia’s Transport Minister told N1.

“The Transport and Communications Ministry is not in charge of dealing with the division of revenues from the excise tax. I am disappointed that our citizens had to pay additional taxes but that the construction hasn’t started yet,” Ismir Jusko told N1. “The future authorities will have the opportunity to something about this and to direct these funds to road construction.”

He noted that he coordinated the project for the construction of the Belgrade-Sarajevo expressway, adding that the routes chosen for the two expressways were more of a wish-list than actual suggestions.

“There has to be an industrial centre near-by which would fund the construction of those expressways. That’s why the most profitable route is the one over the towns of Tuzla and Gorazde.” Husko stressed.

During the negotiations on the route which the Belgrade-Sarajevo expressway would take, representatives from both Bosnian semi-autonomous entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity, and the Republika Srpska entity could not agree on the single route, with both sides demanding that the road should mostly go through their entity.

Then the Turkish authorities who said they would finance the construction said they would finance both routes through Bosnia, and that the authorities just have to submit their formal suggestions to the Turkish side.

The Transport Minister said he expects the expressway to intensify road traffic through Bosnia but he could not say how those expressways would be financed.

According to him, Serbia has done a lot more work on this project than Bosnia has.