On Wednesday, 3 April, the Saeima in the final reading and as a matter of urgency adopted the Law on the State Budget for 2019 and 14 draft laws related to the budget.
The state budget for the current year has been structured based on slightly adjusted earlier measures while not covering any new initiatives; however, as a result of revising the baseline expenditure additional funds have been granted for a number of activities.
The revenue side of the consolidated budget is planned to amount to 9.2 billion euros, while the expenditure side is planned to reach 9.4 billion euros, an increase by 416 and 430 million, respectively compared to the previous year. The general government deficit for 2019 is estimated at 0.5 % of GDP, but the GDP is expected to grow by 3 %.
The draft budget for 2019 has been agreed with the European Commission and it complies with the requirements of fiscal discipline.
In addition to 1.5 million euros earmarked earlier, Saeima supported reallocation of 5.5 million euros for the education reform, including for raising the salaries of teachers. The funds will be sourced from dividends of the State Joint Stock Company Latvijas Loto and the profit of the Bank of Latvia paid to the state budget. In total, additional 7 million euros will be allocated for raising the salaries of teachers.
The Saeima also supported the proposal to grant 450,000 euros for the implementation of the Family-friendly Municipality programme to promote creation of a more family-focused environment in municipalities.
In addition, the Saeima decided to allocate 170,000 euros for the Central Election Commission of Latvia for the administration of the European Parliament elections to be held in May, which includes providing the voters the option to cast their vote at polling stations abroad and the option for voters in Latvia to vote early at any polling station.
An amount of 213,000 euros will be allocated for the development of Paralympic sports centre in Riga and 1.3 million euros for the construction of Olympic sports centre in Rēzekne. Meanwhile, 400,000 euros were granted for activities of Olympic and Paralympic athletes preparing for individual sports competitions at 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
EUR 7.2million will be allocated to carry out the action plan for implementing Moneyval recommendations in the area of anti-money laundering and financing of terrorism. Additionally, funds have been allocated for capacity building of supervisory authorities in the financial sector.
Additional 60.3 million euros are earmarked for national defence to meet the 2 % commitment.
Likewise, additional 3 million euros were allocated to ensure the functioning of public media, the Ombudsman’s Office, the State Audit Office and other independent authorities.
This year, additional 41.3 million euros were granted to pay benefits to the employees of the law enforcement for every five years of their service, and 8.9 million euros to raise the remuneration of judges and prosecutors thus implementing the judgement by the Constitutional Court. Additional 87.5 million euros have been granted to raise the salaries of healthcare workers.
Further 10.4 million euros are earmarked for the indexation of retirement pensions and allowances, and the raising of the benefit for the spouse of a deceased pensioner; 5.4 million euros are granted to cover additional payments from the Maintenance Guarantee Fund, while additional 3 million euros are allocated to cover the cost of medications for patients suffering from rare diseases.
Today, the Saeima decided to increase the special care benefit paid to children and adults with disability from birth, and the amount granted for this benefit amounts to 2.7 million euros. At the same time, 1 million euros are allocated for the introduction of the adoption benefit, but 4.8 million euros for raising the remuneration of workers of long-term social care centres.
EUR 168,000 were granted to ensure digital publication of the documents of the Committee for State Security of the former Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic.
This year, additional measures will be implemented to tackle the shadow economy. It is planned to restrict the access to non-licensed interactive gambling activities and lotteries, introduce cash ban in real estate transactions, and advance payments in commercial transport using passenger cars. Likewise, work will continue to reduce shadow economy in healthcare, as well as in the public catering and hospitality industry, passenger transport and in the provision of security services.
The revenue part of the budget this year introduces, inter alia, stricter control measures regarding the payment of tolls for the use of the main national and regional roads, abolishes the exemption from the natural resources tax on disposable tableware, and discontinues the payment of maintenance for children who have entered employment and no longer study.
Saeima Press Service