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“Last year, the country’s economy fell to one of the lowest figures in the EU. However, there are two worrying risk factors. We have increased unemployment and many unemployed people, we have more than 260 thousand of them. The second is it is the risk that during the economic contraction and recession, the shadow economy may grow and the measures to limit the quarantine have their own details, “said S. Krėpšta on Tuesday after the president’s meeting with business representatives.
According to him, one of the measures proposed by the president to encourage people to enter the labor market after the pandemic is to raise the NPD.
“With regard to job restoration, in the president’s view, post-quarantine measures for preservation, restoration and job creation are worth discussing in the context of the budget. They should be important when discussing the budget.
It is also worth talking about tax incentives, which would also have an incentive effect on the country’s economy and the job recovery situation. One of the ideas could be to increase the NPD, which would increase the income of low-income people and also encourage people to return to the labor market, ”he said.
According to S. Krėpšta, the NPD could increase by 50 euros.
“The president is actively considering that possibility because it is just a time to review the budget,” he said.
Krėpšta also added that the president intends to introduce a law that would stipulate that only 6 months after the introduction of new taxes, they would take effect.
“The president’s earlier idea of a 6-month rule that would apply and guarantee this gap before tax increases was also discussed.” The majority of the business community supports this idea and the president is determined to pass the law in a near future, “he said.
According to S. Krėpšta, the growing shadow in various segments of the economy would help curb the expanding scale of digitization.
“When it comes to hidden tools, the focus here is on digital electronic tools in sectoral areas. One of the measures is the digitization of the car trade, which will take effect from the first day of next month.
We have also been discussing the Builders Card for several years, which could significantly reduce the shadow in the construction sector. It is also worth discussing other measures for the catering sector that are applied in other countries and could digitize billing and thus reduce the shadow ”, he said.
“This would generate additional financial resources for the country in terms of budget revision and the need to manage debt growth,” added Krėpšta.
G. Nausėda also initiated the NPD increase last year and received approval from the Seimas; then the NPD was increased by 50 euros to 400 euros. The changes took effect in July of last year.
Discussing the 2021 budget last year, the presidency said the head of state would like an even faster increase in the NPD.
Wait for measures to save jobs
Andrius Romanovskis, president of the Lithuanian Business Confederation (LVK), says the business community expects the revised budget to include measures for job creation.
“With regard to post-pandemic measures, we have expressed high expectations that the new budget will include not only quarantine measures such as allowances or compensation for downtime, but also measures to preserve jobs.
There is a debate that perhaps these measures should be abandoned as inappropriate or inaccurate. We express to the president the expectation that both the Government and the Seimas will design the measures aimed at creating and preserving jobs in the post-quarantine period, “said A. Romanovskis at the press conference.
He said LVK supports the country’s chief’s proposal to link income tax relief to an increase in payroll as companies raise the wages of lower-paid workers.
According to A. Romanovskis, the threat of the “shadow” was also discussed at the meeting.
“As an organization, we have proposed to talk about the elimination of the cash settlement for the purchase of goods subject to special taxes between legal persons, be it alcohol, fuel or tobacco, because we see that there is a fairly high risk of ‘shadow’ here and such regulations could contribute to the ‘shadow’, “Romanovsky said.
“Another topic we touched on was tobacco smuggling from Belarus. In many cases, these are state factories de facto exporting to Lithuania for smuggling. We suggest that perhaps Lithuania could offer to its partners in Europe and the US. Apply sanctions on traffickers who promote the underground economy in Lithuania, ”said A. Romanovskis.
It offers how to create new jobs.
Dalia Matukienė, president of the Council of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises of Lithuania, says that curbing the underground economy in the country would be favored by the possibility for communities to get involved in public procurement and by guaranteeing the principle of equality for companies.
“(With the president – ELTA) we talked about the fact that to eliminate the shadow, the invisible work, it is necessary that both the state itself and its people adhere to a very clear principle of equality for all companies. significantly the shadow is the opportunity for the entire community to get involved in public procurement and in some regional regulation of supply and demand, “he said after the meeting with the country’s head.
According to D. Matukienė, by increasing the participation and promotion of small businesses in the regions, it would be possible to create around 100 thousand. new jobs.
“Our council has proposed a socially oriented green economy program, and we have already presented it to both the president and the Ministry of Economy and Innovation. This program could create an additional 100,000 in 5 years. new and efficient jobs. At the same time, to ensure that our regional consumer has access to high-quality products from local farmers and small businesses, the vast majority of which are located in the regions. That would eliminate very unhealthy competition in public procurement and there would be transparency, “he said.
D. Matukienė also stated that the objective will be to raise the threshold of value added tax (VAT) to 85 thousand. euros.
“Now, as we know, the VAT tax (payer’s threshold – ELTA) is 45 thousand. euros. The European Commission (EC) has allowed Lithuania to increase this limit to 55 thousand. Our request was to increase this limit to 55 thousand. as authorized by the CE.
However, given that the vast majority of very small businesses have been unable to work for 5 months and there are more than 260,000 unemployed today, our proposal was to allow the threshold to be raised and ask the EC to raise it to 85,000. she emphasized.
According to D. Matukienė, to achieve sustainable job creation, it is also important to provide more favorable opportunities to start new businesses.
“It is necessary to focus on the opportunities of the Employment Service for the creation of new businesses. Through the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) it was a measure that allowed about 4 thousand. people receive grants and create their own jobs. “Some measures are working, but some measures, especially through the Ministry of Agriculture, did not generate money,” he said.
