The Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has established an account and allocated funds to the BiH Ministry of Finance to settle the debt owed to the Slovenian company Viadukt, as confirmed in a statement to Radio Free Europe.

This action by the state institution was taken following the directive from the High Representative of the International Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kristian Schmidt, who enacted a decision on July 17 stating that the 56 million euro debt to Viadukt would be covered by fuel tolls from the portion designated for the Republika Srpska entity (RS) budget.

The Slovenian firm Viadukt has initiated arbitration proceedings against BiH after the RS government granted a concession to its own Elektroprivreda RS in 2013, which jeopardized a prior hydroelectric power project on the Vrbas River.

After a ruling from the ICSID, an arbitration court in Washington in 2022, Viadukt began efforts to seize BiH state assets domestically and internationally to recover the debt, including assets from the BiH Air Navigation Services Agency (BHANSA).

A claim for the forced collection of Central Bank of BiH assets, specifically its real estate holdings across several cities in BiH, was also made.

For seven years, BiH authorities have failed to agree on the distribution of over 160 million euros from toll collections from every liter of fuel sold, meant for financing highways and roads nationwide.

The sharing of these funds among the entities in the Federation of BiH, RS, and the Brčko District of BiH as an independent administrative unit is still unresolved, as the finance ministers of these entities, who form the Board of Directors of the Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH, have not reached consensus. This board is responsible for collecting money from value-added tax (VAT), customs, excise duties, and other indirect taxes.

Previous statements from the Minister of Finance of the Federation of BiH, Toni Kraljević, indicated that RS representatives demanded more funds than what the Federation of BiH estimated was collected from road tolls in the RS territory.

Simultaneously, the RS authorities and their representatives in the national government have refused to adhere to the arbitration rulings in the Viadukt case, despite their obligations under the 2017 Agreement with the Council of Ministers of BiH concerning mutual rights and duties in this matter.

Šmit clarified, “This share of tolls allocated for repaying the debt to Viadukt will not impact RS budgetary expenditures, nor will it influence the stability of the RS budget. It will not affect any payments or services provided to RS citizens.”

He added that the funds are to be sent to the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of BiH so that the ministry can complete the payment to Viadukt.

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