The House of Peoples of Bosnia's Federation entity (FBiH) Parliament adopted on Thursday the budget proposal for 2024 with 45 votes in favour, five votes against and eight abstentions. All the amendments were rejected, same as in the House of Representatives a day before.

This budget proposed by the entity Government amounts to 7,474,800,209 Bosnian marks, the largest so far and half a billion marks higher than last year.

Finance Minister Toni Kraljevic addressed the media and unveiled a few details about this year's budget in the FBiH, one of two Bosnia's semi-autonomous entities.

“For the first time, funds were allocated for newborns in the Federation. This is a new transfer from the FBiH Ministry of Labour and Social Policy in the total amount of 16 million marks, which refers to a one-time financial aid for each newborn child. We hope that in the coming years this figure will have a growing trend,” the minister said.

In the item referring to the FBiH Institute of Health Insurance and Reinsurance, ten million marks is intended to help childless couples for biomedically assisted fertilization procedures.

According to the minister, more money is also planned for harmonising pensions in accordance with legal regulations.

“Compensations for veteran categories, on various grounds, were increased by 9.6 million marks, as well as for non-war disabled persons, civilian victims of war, for projects intended for these categories, so that the total increase in allocation for these categories is 57.7 million marks,” he stressed.

A credit line through state-owned Development Bank was increased by five million marks to support housing care for young people, and now totals 20 million marks.

In the field of entrepreneurship, the minister noted that there are two laws in the parliamentary procedure – on entrepreneurial infrastructure and on incentives for the development of small businesses. Those two items were significantly increased, by 18.4 million marks, which will significantly increase the competitiveness of trades in FBiH and small and medium-sized enterprises.

“Capital transfers to municipalities, cities and local communities were increased by 50 million marks. This is also an opportunity to provide additional sources of financing for a significant part of the infrastructure projects of local self-government units. We have planned 18 million marks for the construction of sports infrastructure, and all local self-government units will have the right to apply for these funds individually when public calls are announced,” according to the minister.

As he said, 50 million marks is planned for the Solidarity Fund, which is the largest amount for this fund so far, increased by 16.5 million marks compared to last year.

Transfers to support agriculture were increased by 11 million marks compared to 2023.

The budget was adopted Wednesday night in the House of Representatives after several hours of session and heated discussions.

(1 euro = 1.95 Bosnian marks)