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High Representative's DecisionDecision imposing the Law on Administrative Fees30 July 1999 |
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In accordance with my authority under Annex 10 of the General Framework
Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (GFAP) and article XI of the
Bonn Document, I do hereby decide that the Law on Administrative Fees for
Bosnia and Herzegovina as passed by the Council of Ministers on 31 August
1998 and subsequently amended according to proposals made by the
Parliamentary Assembly, shall enter into force on 31 July 1999 on an interim
basis, until the Parliamentary Assembly adopts this Law in due form.
This decision and the text of the Law will be published in the Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sarajevo, 30 July, 1999
Carlos Westendorp
PROPOSALLAW ON ADMINISTRATIVE FEES This Law shall regulate payment of administrative fees in procedures before the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and in actions taken by these institutions. Article 2 Administrative fees shall be paid for documents and actions in administrative matters, as well as for other matters and actions, before the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Article 3 Documents and actions for which fees are charged and the amount of fees shall be established in the administrative fee tariff. Administrative fee tariff shall be established by this Law. Article 4 Administrative fee payer shall be a person at whose request the procedure has been initiated or actions taken in accordance with the administrative fee tariff. If one administrative fee is payable by two or more fee payers, they shall have joint obligation. Article 5 Unless regulated otherwise by the fee tariff, administrative fee shall be payable for:
Article 6 A fee shall be charged at the time when the payment obligation occurs, unless otherwise regulated by this Law. Article 7 If this is established by the fee tariff that a fee shall be charged according to the value of an object, the base for calculation of the fee shall be the value indicated in the submission or document, or the value established by an evaluation made by the organ conducting the procedure, when there is reasonable doubt that the value indicated in the submission or document does not concur with the real value. Article 8 When the fee-payable document is issued in two or more copies at the request of the applicant, the same fee charged for transcripts and their certification shall be paid for the second and all other additional copies of the document. Fee referred to in Paragraph 1 of this Article cannot be higher than the fee charged for the original. Article 9 Decisions or other documents for which fees were charged must indicate that the fee was paid, and indicate the amount of the fee and under which tariff number it was charged. Article 10 Unpaid and insufficiently paid submissions and other documents, except for those tax-exempted, must not be received directly from the applicant. If an unpaid or insufficiently paid submission is submitted by mail, the organ responsible for deciding on the request shall issue a dunning letter to the fee payer, warning him/her to pay the regular fee and the dunning letter fee within eight days from the date of receiving the dunning letter. The competent organ shall initiate the procedure upon receiving both the unpaid and the insufficiently paid submission referred to in Paragraph 2 of this Article, but the decision or any other document made with reference to the submission may not be handed over to the applicant before he/she pays for the fees in accordance to the dunning letter. Article 11 Provisions of Article 10, Paragraph 2, of the Law shall not apply to unpaid and insufficiently paid submissions and other documents submitted by mail from abroad, and shall not apply to other documents and actions subject to payment of consular fees. Such submissions and documents shall be treated in accordance with Article 24 of the Law. Article 12 Documents and actions in procedures conducted ex officio shall not be subject to payment of fees. Article 13 The following persons and organisations shall be exempted from payment of fees:
Article 14 The following documents and actions shall be exempted from the fee:
Article 15 Fee-exempted documents must indicate the purpose for their issuance and the regulations which were used as the basis for such exemption. Article 16 Foreign citizens shall have the same rights as citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina in accordance with regulations on fee, under the conditions of reciprocity. Article 17 The fees shall be paid in cash with the institutions referred to in Article 2. of this Law, in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Article 18 Forced collection of the fee shall be carried out in accordance with entity regulations on forced collection of taxes from citizens, that is in accordance with the same regulations on forced collection of taxes from the legal entities. Article 19 A person who paid fee in cash and he/she was not bound to pay, shall have the right to reimbursement of the fee. Procedure for reimbursement of the fee shall be initiated upon the request of the applicant. The body which collected the fee shall pass decision on reimbursement of the fee. Fee reimbursement shall be covered from the budgetary revenues of Bosnia and Herzegovina whose institution the fee was paid to. Article 20 The right to fee collection shall expire within two years starting from the fee due date, and the right to fee reimbursement shall expire within two years from the day when the fee has been paid. Article 21 The Ministry of Civil Affairs and Communications shall exercise control over the application of regulations on administrative fee. While performing its activities, each institution shall exercise internal control over the application of regulations on administrative fee. Article 22 Fee in cash, regardless of the amount of the fee shall be paid even by fee payers with the seat, that is place of residence in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in cases when they address diplomatic and consular offices of Bosnia and Herzegovina abroad. Fee from paragraph 1 of this Article shall be paid in Convertible Marks to the account of consular fee revenues. Fee payers abroad who request from the bodies in Bosnia and Herzegovina to take action subject to fee payment shall pay fee in foreign currency in accordance with valid exchange rate. Article 23 If a fee to be paid at diplomatic and consular offices of Bosnia and Herzegovina abroad has not been paid in advance in terms of Article 5 of this Law, payment shall be made before the decision or some other document is forwarded to the fee payer. Article 24 In the procedure with diplomatic and consular offices of Bosnia and Herzegovina abroad the following shall be exempted from fee payment:
Article 25 In the procedure with diplomatic and consular offices of Bosnia and Herzegovina abroad, citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina having the status of refugee in third countries shall pay 50% of the prescribed consular fee for travel documents. Article 26 Fee payer who requests a service shall be bound to pay real costs incurred by the request, besides consular fee. Article 27 Head of diplomatic or consular office of Bosnia and Herzegovina abroad shall pass decision on reimbursement of consular fee and it shall be executed using current revenue from these fees. Article 28 Supervision of the application of the provisions of this Law and administrative fee tariffs with diplomatic and consular offices of Bosnia and Herzegovina abroad shall be conducted by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Communications in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Article 29 The Minister of Foreign Affairs shall be authorised to decide, in cooperation with the Minister of Civil Affairs and Communications, that diplomatic and consular offices of Bosnia and Herzegovina abroad collect consular fees from the citizens of certain states in the same amount in which these states and their offices abroad collect these fees from citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Article 30 Administrative fees specified in the Tariff in the section treating the work of the institutions referred to in Article 2 of this Law shall be paid in Convertible Marks to the account of the Budget of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in accordance with the order related to payment accounts of the BiH Budget, except for diplomatic and consular offices of Bosnia and Herzegovina Paragraph 2 of this Article is applicable to. Administrative fees specified in the Tariff in the section Fees for the Operation of Diplomatic and Consular Offices of Bosnia and Herzegovina shall be paid to the foreign currency account of the diplomatic and consular office of Bosnia and Herzegovina which shall transfer these funds into the Budget of Bosnia and Herzegovina in accordance with the order related to payment accounts of the BiH Budget. Article 31 Administrative Fee Tariff shall be an integral part of this Law. Article 32 This Law shall enter into force on the eighth day from the day of its publication in the Official Gazette of BiH, and it shall be published in the Official Gazettes of the Entities.
E x p l a n a t i o n
LAW ON ADMINISTRATIVE FEES The Constitutional grounds for the adoption of this Law is contained in Article 3, Point 1 e) of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, pursuant to which, financing of institutions and payment of international obligations of Bosnia and Herzegovina is within the competencies of the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. II REASONS FOR ADOPTION OF THE LAW Starting from the aforementioned constitutional grounds and specified obligations arising from the article which regulates financing of institutions and paying international obligations of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Conclusion of the Council of Ministers of BiH made in its 53rd session held on 8 an 9 July 1998, there is a requirement to adopt this Law as the administrative fees specified in this Law are the revenue of the Budget of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Besides, a number of laws have been enacted at the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina which are implying the obligations for the state bodies of Bosnia and Herzegovina in their implementation, which also incurs certain material expenses. Among others, the following laws were adopted: Law on the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina, no 4/97), Law on the Policy of Direct Foreign Investment in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina, No 4/98), Law on Customs Tariff (Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina, No 1/98 and 8/98), Law on the Execution of the Budget of the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and International Obligations of Bosnia and Herzegovina for 1998. Law on Foreign Trade Policy (Official Gazette of Bosnia and Herzegovina, No 7/98). III EXPLANATION OF THE PROPOSED SOLUTIONS
Art 1-9
The above stated articles specify that administrative fees are to be paid for documents and actions in administrative matters and for other matters and actions undertaken with the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina which are subject to payment of administrative fees as well as the fee rates fixed by the fee tariff which is an integral part of this Law, definition of a fee payer is given and the timing of a fee obligation, when it is payable and in what way, and the obligation of the body collecting fees to state the amount of the paid fee in the document for which the fee was paid.
Art 10-12
These articles elaborate the procedure of handling unpaid or insufficiently paid submissions which differs depending on whether they are submitted directly to the body or sent by mail, and whether the submission was delivered by mail from the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina or abroad and whether the submission refers to documents and actions which are subject to payment of consular fees, and there is also a provision that documents and actions conducted ex officio are not subject to payment of fees.
Art 13-17
These articles regulate exemptions from the fee payment obligations, enlist documents and actions exempted from the fee payment, specify the obligation of the bodies to state the purpose of issuing the document which is not subject to a fee, and also that foreign nationals are exempted from paying fees under reciprocal terms.
Articles 18-22
The above mentioned articles stipulate the method of administrative fee payment with institutions in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, compulsory collection procedure, reimbursement procedure, deadline for overdue payment of a fee, supervision and internal control of the application of this Law, cash fee collection procedure when fee-payers with their seat or place of residence in Bosnia and Herzegovina address diplomatic-consular missions abroad.
Articles 23-28
The above mentioned articles stipulate the fee collection procedure at diplomatic-consular missions of Bosnia and Herzegovina abroad, fee-exempted cases, percentage of fee payment out of the prescribed consular fee determined for our refugees in third countries and in the states formed by dissolution of the former SFRY, fee reimbursement procedure, and define a body which carries out the supervision over application of provisions of this Law and administrative fee tariff in diplomatic and consular missions abroad.
Articles 29-32
The above mentioned articles authorize the Minister of Foreign Affairs that, in cooperation with the Minister of Civil Affairs and Communications, to regulate that diplomatic and consular missions of Bosnia and Herzegovina abroad can collect consular fees from citizens of respective countries in the same amount in which those respective states and their missions collect fees from the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, stipulate fee payment method for the work of institution in BiH, as well as the work of diplomatic and consular missions abroad, define that the Administrative Fee Tariff is the integral part of this Law, as well as that the Law enters into force on the above mentioned date from the day of its publishing in the Official Gazette of BiH. IV MEANS FOR THE APPLICATION OF THE LAW No special financial means are needed for the application of this Law.
T A R I F F S
I FEE FOR DOCUMENTS AND ACTIONS OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA INSTITUTIONS
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