"I can say that VAT collection has improved over the past two months, exceeding the targets for those months. I can say that even tighter measures will be adopted in the near future to control excise goods," he told the radio station Žinių Radijas on Thursday when asked if the government would manage to increase salaries to public servants next year in order to comply with the Constitutional Court's decision.
Butkevičius said that the government was taking various measures to improve tax administration. As part of these measures, it is planning to introduce a triple control of excise stamps for a three-month period.
The prime minister said that tax inspectors should tighten control of, for example, second-hand car purchase and sale transactions, in which sellers often report a much lower price to avoid paying higher taxes.
According to figures from the Finance Ministry, VAT revenues for the first six months of this year, at 4.489 billion litas (EUR 1.3m), fell 305.4 million litas, or 6.4 percent, short of the target. Excise tax revenues, at 1.522 billion litas, were 79.4 million litas, or 4.9 percent, below projections.
