Summer is coming to an end, but the new political season is hot: in the fall at the Seimas – extremely exciting topics

The fall session of the Seimas envisions a number of bills, including initiatives that have received much debate.

Company law

At the presentation stage of the spring session, the Association Law lacked 3 votes. Then representatives of the Freedom Party, the initiators of this project, immediately said that the law will return to the parliament hall in the fall.

It is true that, according to Tomas Vytautas Raskevičius, one of the main authors of the project, this time the initiative will be discussed in detail with all the factions of the Seimas, the president and the hierarchs of the church. He told the Elta news agency. Read here.

However, the largest opposition faction, the Lithuanian Union of Greens and Peasants, opposes the Association Law. The latter even passed a resolution on the support of several of its representatives to the project: if a “peasant” member supports the association in the fall, he will be expelled from the group.

It seems that it will not be necessary to withdraw many members, because Lukas Savickas, who voted for the Association vote, has already announced that he will leave the group. Rūta Miliūtė, who also supported the aforementioned project, also did not hide his doubts about the future with LVŽS. And the conflict between Ramūnas Karbauskis, the leader of the “peasants,” with Tomas Tomilinas, who publicly advocates the legitimation of a gender-neutral association, ended with his expulsion from the party.

President Gitanas Nausėda also criticized the association law.

The association was also not supported by the Christian Democratic flank and some other members of the TS-LKD group, who suggested their alternative of holding a referendum on the association.

Another option was also proposed: a project registered in 2017, which proposed the legalization of a coexistence contract. LVŽS also proposed a similar project.

But perhaps most of the criticism in the public sphere came from others. The representatives of the Liberal Movement Jonas Varkalys and Juozas Baublys voted against the legalization of the association and Viktoras Pranckietis abstained.

Although the legalization of the association is included in the party’s program, the project was not supported by five social democrats: Vidmantas Kanopa, Kęstutis Vilkauskas, Vilija Targamadzė, Tomas Bičiūnas and Liudas Jonaitis.

Decriminalization of low-volume drugs

TV Raskevičius Eltai also said that the partnership project will be returned to the Seimas in the fall after another heavily decriminalized drug decriminalization project at the Seimas, presented by his colleague Morgana Danielė.

The initiative has already been considered by all the Seimas committees, so it will be possible to vote on this project.

The amendments initiated by Ms. Daniela propose the transfer of penalties for small amounts of drugs without a purpose from the Penal Code to the Code of Administrative Offenses.

Currently, the project foresees fines ranging between 20 and 100 euros for the first offense and up to 200 euros for repeat offenses. However, the Legal Affairs Commission and the Law Enforcement Commission, which was designated as lead, supported the proposal to increase the fines. Finally, the current version of the project foresees fines of between 30 and 250 euros for the first offense and between 250 and 400 euros for repeated offenses.

Decriminalization initiatives do not have the support of the opposition “peasants”. Other groups also had doubts. The main concern, they say, is that these amendments to the law would facilitate the activities of drug traffickers when they distribute small amounts of drugs, but evade punishment under the pretext of assuming that the substances are for their own use.

However, Vytautas Mitalas, vice president of the Seimas and representative of Freedom Faction, was interviewed. Delphi He said he expected support for the initiative from virtually all parliamentary groups. You can find the interview here.

Changes in the pension system

The model for changing the pension system should also be presented in the autumn: it was presented to President Gitanas Nausėda and representatives of the associations that unite the elderly on Thursday.

The Ministry of Social Security and Labor proposes that those who have not only the required time of service but also the minimum receive a full basic pension.

In the individual pension part, it is proposed to increase the projected indexation coefficient. In 2022, instead of 7.93 percent. appointed 12.15 percent.

This year the basic pension is 198.29 euros, next year it should reach 214.01 euros. This year the point value is 4.17 euros, next year it should reach 4.5 euros (indexed as planned) or 4.68 euros (with a proposal from the ministry).

However, such proposed changes were critically evaluated by the director of the Lithuanian Center for Social Research dr. Boguslav Gruzewski. During the meeting of the Vilnius County branches of the Social Democratic Party held last Saturday.

Increasing pensions for all “according to the ruler”, as B. Gruževskis put it, doubles the threat of Sodra’s budget instability, as well as highlighting the problem of inequality.

B. Gruževskis highlighted the risks of the proposed pension increase model: inefficient use of state budget funds, insufficient impact on poverty reduction of the elderly population, loss of Sodra’s budget share reserve, and reduced attractiveness of the Sodra system.

Therefore, as the expert pointed out, it is necessary to differentiate pensions and provide more specific assistance to older people who receive low pensions.

Car pollution tax

The Ministry of Environment presented that instead of the car registration tax already in force, from now on there should be two taxes: the registration tax for cars imported into Lithuania for the first time and the annual pollution tax.

According to the bill, it is estimated that, depending on the pollution, the one-time registration fee can be from 115 to 2258 euros, and the annual usage fee, from 29 to 564 euros.

The bill establishes that the new registration tax must be calculated by multiplying the CO2 emissions of a motor vehicle registered in the Registry of Road Vehicles by the pollution tax rate and the pollution tax coefficient established in the annex to the law and the indexation coefficient.

Changes must be submitted to the Seimas in the fall session. The expected entry into force is January 1, 2023.

On Delfi’s TV show “Monetary Affairs”, Environment Minister Simonas Gentvilas stated that the registration fee is being modified so that cleaner cars do not flow to us when we clean up Europe, and residents and businesses They would also be motivated to buy less polluting. cars.

Meanwhile, the annual pollution tax is designed to encourage residents to swap their existing cars for less polluting ones.

It is true that the chosen fiscal model has already received criticism. Professor Raimondas Kuodis called it a regressive property tax on his Facebook account.

According to him, a pollution tax, a special tax on fuel, has existed in Lithuania for a long time. He is convinced that the pollution problem should be solved by handling excise taxes or reducing speed on the highway, rather than introducing a property tax that will not solve the problem.

A representative of the Automobile Employers Association said that excise duties could not be significantly increased because we are in the same economic zone as our neighbors, which could increase the shadow, more fuel is imported from the neighbors.

In the program, Minister S. Gentvilas calculated that the average car bought by a Lithuanian costs around 5,000. euros. If the law passes as proposed, importing some of the most polluting cars would cost 1,000 more. euros.

The so-called motor vehicle registration tax in Lithuania came into force on July 1, 2020. At present, it is necessary to pay for each polluting car registered or re-registered in Lithuania. The amount of the tax varies from 13.5 to 540 euros, depending on the type of car and the carbon footprint.

Other projects

Other initiatives that have not received less attention are awaiting the fall session: the working group on the review of tax benefits will complete its work, present its conclusions to the Government, present a proposal to the Seimas to amend the articles of the Constitution.

Various environmental taxes will be considered, other tax proposals, the National Security Strategy will be complemented and amendments to the legislation that regulates gambling will be decided. Modifications to the draft Sports Law, modifications to the laws related to the institutional reorganization of the penitentiary system and the execution of conditional release, draft legal acts related to the implementation of the health policy and consideration of the modification to the Constitution on the post-impeachment candidacy. it will also arrive at the Seimas.

The parliamentarians will also evaluate the draft law on alcohol control, which aims to lift some restrictions and harmonize the hours of alcohol marketing every day of the week. A bill abolishing the special status of Lukiškės Square and other initiatives was also registered.

Furthermore, an agreement on education should be signed in September, and a National Forestry Agreement should also be signed in the near future.