Lithuanian parliament backs revised budget

The extra funds came from cutting programmes of the Ministries of Finance and Energy and reducing payment to the European Union (EU) by EUR 11 million.

The Seimas, the Parliament of Lithuania, is scheduled to vote on adoption of the state budget on 10 December.

On Tuesday the Seimas agreed to allocate additional EUR 7.7 million to the Fire and Rescue Department, the Public Security Service (VST), the Police Department and other agencies. The State Security Department (VSD) will receive EUR 1.5 million for acquisition of new equipment.

Finance Minister Rimantas Šadžius told MPs that, taking into account the Seimas’ request, the Ministry has managed to find EUR 12 million for the education system. EUR 9 million of the amount will go towards teachers’ salaries, EUR 1 million to the implementation of experiment of a school voucher model per class. Additionally, wages of preschool teachers will grow by 5 percent, while all other teachers will have raises of 2.5 percent.

From 1 January 2016, the minimum monthly wage will grow from EUR 325 to EUR 350. The move will require EUR 21.1 million from the state and municipal budgets.

The structural government deficit is projected at 1 percent of GDP, 0.1 percentage point less than in the initial project. The central government debt is projected to stand at 1.2 percent of GDP, also 0.1 percentage point below initial projections.

In 2016, the planned state budget revenues stand at EUR 8.046 billion, while expenditures at EUR 8.686 billion. These means a deficit of EUR 640.3 million.

Budget indicators were compiled based on the estimate of a 3.2 percent GDP growth and the average annual inflation of 1.4 percent.