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Left-wing opposition slams Latvia's draft 2016 budget

Xinhua, October 8, 2015 Adjust font size:

Left-wing opposition parties have slammed Latvia's draft 2016 budget ahead of its first reading in parliament, complaining that it is not aimed at promoting economic growth and warning that spending too much on defence would result in social tension.

The 2016 budget is not aimed at growth and stability, representatives of the opposition leftist For Latvia from the Heart (NSL) faction concluded after a meeting with Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma and Finance Ministry officials.

NSL leader Inguna Sudraba, who is also Latvia's former auditor general, said that yet again the government drew up the budget mechanically, setting as its main goal compliance with the budget framework "rather than ensuring growth."

"No consideration has been given to entrepreneurs, people or the country in general. Moreover, only now that the budget has already been submitted to the parliament consultations are being started with entrepreneurs on taxes and with teachers on their new pay system," Sudraba said.

Also, a decision has yet to be made about the financing needed for the admission and integration of refugees, she added.

Janis Urbanovics, the leader of the largest faction in Latvia's current parliament, the left-wing Harmony, told journalists following a meeting with Prime Minister Straujuma on Wednesday that his party found it impossible to back the budget bill in the vote scheduled for Thursday this week.

The leftist lawmaker strongly criticized the so called solidarity tax the government intends to charge on high salaries.

The Harmony also believes that increasing what they describe as "war spending and readiness for war" will not make Latvia a more secure place. The party's representatives told the prime minister during Wednesday's meeting that they disapproved of her center-right government's decision to make defence a top priority for 2016.

Urbanovics also predicted problems from the planned admission of refugees warning that if the refugees are paid larger benefits than those granted to Latvia's poor it will add to social tension.

Finance Minister Janis Reirs submitted Latvia's draft 2016 budget and the medium-term budget framework for 2016-2018 to the parliament on Sept. 30. The government has committed to keeping the budget deficit below 1 percent of GDP (gross domestic product) next year and has set defence, internal security, health care and education as the main priorities. Endit