For many Croats who shop in the neighbouring country, the price difference could decrease somewhat.
The board of directors of the Indirect Taxation Authority (UNO) of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted a decision to determine specific and minimum excise duties on cigarettes and smoking tobacco for 2018, reports Večernji List on November 8, 2017.
At a session held in Mostar, members of the UNO board of directors determined that the new minimum excise duties on cigarettes and tobacco will apply from 1 January 2018. According to the adopted decision, which is based on the Law on Excise Taxes, starting from 1 January 2018 the minimum excise duty will be 2.60 Bosnian marks, instead of 2.42 Bosnian marks, and the specific excise duty will be 1.50 Bosnian marks, instead of 1.35 marks, for a pack of 20 cigarettes. The excise tax for smoking tobacco is set at 104 marks, instead of 96.80 marks per kilogram.
Taxpayers and other persons involved in cigarette trade are obliged to make a record of their cigarette stocks on 1 January and submit the report to the responsible UNO regional centre by 7 January. “The calculation of new retail prices, formed in accordance with this decision, must be submitted by traders to the responsible regional centre by 30 November,” announced the UNO.
And that is not the end of price increases for products of interest for many Croatian consumers. According to reports, the prices of fuel will soon increase in Bosnia and Herzegovina by 0.15 marks. There has been a significant rise in oil prices in the global markets, and that wave will quickly reach Bosnia as well. As a result, fuel prices will increase by 0.15 marks, and some privately-owned pumps have already raised their prices. The continuation of this trend means that fuel in Bosnia will soon again be above two Bosnian marks, and it remains to be seen whether that will lead to additional increases in prices of food and other goods.
When the fuel prices were at this level last time, the prices of essential foodstuffs increased under pressure. However, after fuel prices fell to 1.60 marks, producers did not return food prices to their previous levels. It will indeed be interesting to see whether the initiatives to increase food prices would be re-launched after the fuel is again above two marks. If that happens, it would mean that food prices would have been raised twice due to same fuel price.
Prices in Bosnia and Herzegovina, particularly of cigarettes and fuel, are of great importance for many Croatians, particularly hundreds of thousands of those living near the Bosnian border, since many of them often go shopping in the neighbouring country, where prices are usually much lower than in Croatia, which has a much higher level of value-added tax. Although the price difference might be smaller with the latest increases, it is sure that the trend of shopping abroad will continue, since it is likely that prices in Croatia, particularly of fuel, will also increase.
