Latvia Budget 2010 Riga, November 3
The Latvia Minister of Finance Einars Repse has just handed in the Latvia Budget Project for year 2010 in the Parlament. The budget Project has already been approved by the Cabinet of Ministers.
Repse comments, that this budget is the hardest one in Latvia history. The budget goal this time was to consolidate 500 million lats. The goal is achieved by increasing the income by 185 million lats and decreasing expenses of 315 million lats. The decrease of the budget has affected completely all fields although there are some priority fields, which have got less decrease: social protection, health care, education and co-financing of the EU funds as well as the outside debt repayment.
The Budget Project prognoses 4.4 thousand million lats expenses and 3.7 thousand million lats income in 2010. The budget deficit is prognosed to reach 8.5% of the GDP. It is planned, that the GDP will have decrease of 4%.
Repse announces, that the Budget Project has managed to consolidate 500 million lats according to the request from the European commission without affecting the most vulnerable fields: reducing pensions, increasing the VAT tax, which would have a negative effect on the consumption and company income – therefore also on the Budget income from taxes.
There are still sharp discussions going on about the newly approved taxes: property housing tax - 0.1% of the cadastral value per year and changes in the Inhabitant Income Tax for use of the employer’s cars for private purposes. These changes define, that for each car the employee will be charged 44.90 lats per month and the employer will be charged 36.14 lats per month.
There are also other changes e.g. the untaxed minimum is being decreased to 25 lats, the unemployment benefit will be diminished and Property tax for engineering buildings will be increased. For government instances a new united payment system has been developed, which sets the Prime Minister’s salary as the highest and all government employees receive salary according to their post in the hierarchy.
The Budget Project still has to be approved by international creditors and by the Parliament. It is planned to approve the Budget in the Parliament in the beginning of December. In future the budget will have to experience futher consolidations until the budget deficit will not exceed 3% from GDP.
Source: www.delfi.lv Latvia – a presidental country?
Riga, September 24
A major discussion has started in Latvia about changing the political system of the country from parlamentary democracy to presidental. More and more people express the opinion, that Latvia would need a political leader to bring the country out of crisis.
Three public organisations (The Political Laboratory, The Union of Employers and Producers for the Development of Latvia and Latvia – a Presidental Country) have signed a collaboration agreement to stand for the idea of a nation’s elected president and formed a core for a new political union, which could participate in the 10th Parliament election. The organisations plan to admit new members and finally to form a new political force, which will be named: „Latvia – a Presidental Country”. Their goals include to elaborate the country development strategy and a globally competitive economical system in Latvia as well as to increase the responsibility of the country officers about their decisions.
The representatives of the organisations have confirmed, that work on changes in the Constitution is started to provide the nation’s rights to elect the president. In such a case the president would be able to form and dismiss the government. To make this happen it would be necessary to change 3 points in the Constitution.
The new political force assumes, that to improve the existing situation it is not enough to use „classical methods”, that at this moment the inhabitants of the country would need a political leader and the idea of a presidental country would renew the nation’s trust.
On the other hand the political analyst Maris Zanders thinks, that wider president’s powers would not improve the existing situation. Even if the president would compose the new Cabinet of Ministers exclusively from professional candidates, it would still need the Parliament’s approval, subsequently it would still be dependent on the parties’ will and interests. So, while the political parties have not changed, the government would be still dictated by the same people as it is now. Zanders also believes, that it would be likely impossible to agree about one president’s candidate. The mass media in Latvia is very polarized and if one part would support a certain candidate, the other part would strictly disagree only because of a bare principle. It is also not certain, which media is supported by which financial resources and what are their political interests. To make the presidental country idea serious, first it would be necessary to make the president’s budget independent because at the moment it is being set by the government.
Zanders also suggests, that it is necessary to have a diverse and active society, different groups of interest to execute a fairly democratic election process. Unfortunately at the moment the most part of country inhabitants are too focused on their economical situation and too disappointed in the political processes to devote their time for active social life.
Therefore Zanders concludes, that the idea of a presidental country is seriously considerable, but preferably after some years, when hopefully the economical situation will be normalized.
Source: www.delfi.lv; www.tvnet.lv
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