As the Finance Ministry expects to submit its package of tax changes to the parliament in the spring session, Economy Minister Aušrinė Armonaitė, the leader of the liberal Freedom Party, says that her party’s MPs will not support the proposed legislation.
“If there is somehow an expectation of support, it is necessary to discuss these projects in the coalition. Now, according to what is presented, I do not see the Freedom Party’s votes in favour of the package,” Armonaitė told the radio Žinių Radijas on Thursday.
The Freedom Party holds 11 seats and is part of the conservative-liberal ruling coalition that commands 73 out of 141 seats in the parliament.
According to Armonaitė, the tax reform package in its current form is “a project of the Ministry of Finance” and needs to be more thoroughly discussed in the coalition.
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“Everyone watches the news and thinks: how will my tax bill change, how much will I have to pay out of my own pocket – after all, I’m taking my child to camp, I’m paying an increased mortgage on my apartment and so on. We need more predictability, and it seems to me that if the coalition discusses it first, it would just be smoother,” said Armonaitė.
“When you change the tax system, [rules for] the self-employed and everything else, I’m sorry, but these are just too serious projects to be passed hastily and without consensus,” the minister added.
According to Armonaitė, the tax reform package also contains good proposals that “we need and want to be adopted”.
Another coalition partner, the Liberal Movement, initially also opposed the tax reform proposal, but announced in early June that it would take a more moderate stance amid continuing “political uncertainty”.
After the International Monetary Fund (IMF) favourably assessed the government’s proposed tax reform, Finance Minister Gintarė Skaistė said on Monday that she hoped that discussions on its submission would be finalised in the current session of the parliament.
At the beginning of June, Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said that the government would not change its plans and would submit the tax reform to the parliament.
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