Banjaluka, September 28 – It was impossible to harmonise the 2015-2018 Reform Agenda’s text without the approval of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund /IMF/ and the European Commission, the Republika Srpska Ministry of Finance announced on Monday.
“Every single letter contained in the Agenda has been harmonised and written in the meetings with the IMF, the World Bank and the European Commission,” says the Ministry in its reaction to today’s statement on excise duty by Sandra Hlivnjak, an economist of the World Bank in BiH.
The Republika Srpska Ministry of Finance rimands that the institution, which Hlivnjak represents, was a direct participant in the talks on the adoption of the Reform Agenda for period 2015-2018.
“It is not clear to us on behalf of whom Ms. Hlivnjak speaks now, respectively, we have reason to wonder whether there has been a change in the position of the financial institution she represents in relation to what was written in the reform agenda or Ms. Hlivnjak speaks on her own behalf,” says the Ministry in its statement.
Sandra Hlivnjak, an economist of the World Bank in BiH, stated on Monday in Sarajevo at the presentation of the South East Europe Regular Economic Report by the World Bank, that the international financial institutions required no one in BiH to increase excise duty, or additional taxes, stressing that “new taxes are not recommendable”.
Source: SRNA
