Parliament endorses Latvia's 2016 budget

Latvian lawmakers at a parliament session on Thursday endorsed Latvia's draft 2016 budget and the medium-term budget framework for 2016-2018, sending the bills to parliament committees for review.

The decision was made by 55 votes to 32.

The parliament budget and finance (taxation) committee has been put in charge of reviewing the budget bills.

The government approved the budget bills on Sept. 29, and the next day, Sept. 30, Finance Minister Janis Reirs submitted them, as well as a package of related legislative initiatives, to the parliament.

Speaking ahead of Thursday's vote in the parliament, Igors Pimenovs, an MP of the opposition leftist Harmony faction, said his party could not back the draft budget which in his words was oriented towards stagnation.

The leftist MP also criticized the center-right government for not keeping its promises to tackle problems in areas like health care, entrepreneurship and social inequality. Pimenovs described the new tax measures like the so-called solidarity tax on high salaries and a differentiated untaxable minimum income as "timid attempts" to give some progressivity to the Latvian taxation system.

The government has committed to keeping the budget deficit below 1 percent of GDP in 2016 and has set defense, internal security, health care and education as the main priorities. Enditem