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Išbandyti
2013 09 23

IMF recommends Lithuania to raise taxes

It is time for Lithuania to shift the focus of fiscal adjustment from reducing expenditure to raising revenue, Julie Kozack, the head of an IMF mission, has said.
Tarptautinio valiutos fondo misijos vadovė Julie Kozack ir Algirdas Butkevičius
IMF mission leader Julie Kozack and Lithuanian PM Algirdas Butkevičius / BFL/Vyginto Skaraičio nuotr.

"As in the past, we have a view on the composition of fiscal adjustment in general. What we see in Lithuania right now is that most of adjustment on the fiscal side has focused on expenditure reduction. What we would like to see going forward is a shift to increasing revenue," she said at a news conference after meeting with Lithuania's prime minister and finance minister.

"This includes increases in taxes. We have a view that these increasing taxes could fall on wealth taxation, vehicles and property, because these taxes tend to provide more stable income," she said.

However, Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius says that it is too early to speak about tax changes.

Finance Minister Rimantas Šadžius says that the IMF underlined the need for Lithuania to improve tax collection.

"The new stress is on the improvement of tax collection. This (IMF) study estimates that our VAT collection is lower than it should be given our 21 percent tax rate," he said at the news conference.

The IMF has repeatedly recommended that Lithuania introduce taxes on real property and vehicles. The last time it made this recommendation was last February.

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