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The president affirmed that his strategic and long-term priorities and those of the candidate coincide in the field of finance, in terms of reducing social inequality, fiscal policy, issues of GDP redistribution, many short-term issues: financial management of the pandemic, as well as next year’s budget.
The President pointed out that if a candidate is appointed to this position, he must be aware of the broad responsibilities of the Ministry of Finance, so it is especially important which team would be with him under the leadership of this Ministry, “he said at a remote press conference. . said A. Bubnelis.
According to him, public confidence in the candidate is also very important to the president.
“Reputation is a very important issue and it has also received a lot of attention. The President pointed out that public trust is extremely important for all ministers, especially the Minister of Finance, because he has many levers and many decisions that determine both the welfare of society and the viability of businesses, so this candidate will have to give answer to all. “The president will express his appreciation to the prime minister after meetings with the remaining candidates,” said A. Bubnelis.
G. Skaistė: The public must assess whether I am entitled to this position.
After the meeting with the president, the candidate for finance minister, Gintarė Skaist that, stated that the public, when assessing the totality of knowledge in this regard, must decide whether it can occupy the position of finance minister.
“I think society values all knowledge about me, including the fact that it happened 7 years ago. In fact, I am very sorry for my mistake, I think I really had the opportunity to think a lot about it, (…) I would definitely never do something like that again. Probably for the public to evaluate if that rehabilitation period is sufficient, if I have the right to occupy those positions after evaluating my mistakes and not repeating them again, “he said.
Speaking of the stability of the tax system, G. Skaistė stated that one of the obligations of the new government would be to separate the tax change from the budget.
“Our commitment in the Government’s draft program is that taxes will no longer change along with the budget, so if they decide to change the tax rates, they will take effect at least half a year later. This would allow companies to plan, implement investments more consistently and contribute to economic growth, ”said G. Skaistė.
The candidate for minister also highlighted the need to review fiscal equality.
“I think there could be a debate about an overhaul of the tax system in terms of making your taxes more uniform and less dependent on the form of activity you take so that income is taxed equally,” he said.
G. Skaistė noted that next year’s budget lacks “many things already provided for by law.”
“Suppose that the additional indexation of pensions proposed by the president requires 67 million. € 10 million is needed to recalculate early retirement pensions. 28 million euros for inclusive education. euros. We see that there are many things that are provided for by law but that are not covered by the budget ”, he emphasized.
It is also concerning that the budget does not provide any funding for the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is also worrying that everything related to COVID-19 is provided with borrowed funds and there is no budget for that. Meanwhile, the expected 5 percent. Budget deficit will obviously not be achieved. We can already see today that the costs directly related to COVID-19 (…) will amount to about 880 million euros. in the coming years. It is obvious that the hole in the budget is large enough, so we are happy that these borrowing opportunities are quite favorable ” , said.
G. Skaistė pointed out that, in his opinion, the budget deficit could reach 6.5 percent next year.
“There are no exact calculations, but the State Audit Office predicts that the budget deficit will not be 5%. or 5.7 percent. When talking to the Bank of Lithuania, they name figures from 6 to 7 percent. In my personal opinion, the budget deficit is very likely to be around 6.5 percent, ”he said.
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