"The fairly big revenue backlog also poses a risk that, at the end of this year, the government's plans to achieve that our state's financial situation matches the Maastricht criteria may be hardly achievable," he told a press conference at the Seimas on Monday.
Figures by the Ministry of Finance show that the revenue backlog in the national budget totaled 77.4 million litas (EUR 22.42 million) for the first five months of this year, and the one in the state budget was 169.4 million litas. There were less revenues collected from the value added tax and excises.
The opposition leader believes the revenue backlog may have to do with a rise in the minimum wage early this year when the incumbent center-left government raised the minimum monthly wage from 850 to 1,000 litas, before taxes.
"The reasons for that should be looked for in this government's actions that have been taken, including the rise in the minimum wage, which, in my opinion, brought in quite a lot of confusion into the Lithuanian business. And the way they do their estimates, we see considerable slowdown in the reduction of unemployment, and I think that it's one of the reasons why they are lagging behind the plan endorsed at the end of last year," Kubilius said.
Lithuania seeks to comply with the Maastricht criteria of budget deficit, inflation, and national debt to be able to introduce the euro. The country failed to join the euro zone in 2007 due excessive inflation. Experts say the inflation rate is the main threat to Lithuania's plan to join the euro zone in 2015.
