Lithuanian ruling parties agree on EUR 325 minimum monthly salary in 2015

Chair of the Labour Party group Vytautas Gapšys said after Wednesday’s sitting that the plan was unambitious compared to what the Labour Party had originally offered.

“It has been agreed that the minimum monthly salary will be EUR 325 from 1 July 2015. It is the first step forward. Of course, the Labour Party offered more ambitions options. We have proposed to increase the minimum monthly salary by LTL 100 (EUR 29) next October, the basic monthly salary by LTL 6 (EUR 1.7) next July and a LTL 100 (EUR 29) non-taxable income for children,” said Gapšys.

According to Gapšys, this could be done using LTL 195 million (EUR 65.5 million) that state-owned enterprises will have to additionally pay to the budget, LTL 25 million (EUR 7.2 million) from excise duties and LTL 4 million (EUR 1.16) from gambling tax. “The Ministry of Finance approved this,” said Gapšys.

Chair of the Social Democratic Party‘s political group in the Seimas, Irena Šiaulienė, added that the reduced VAT rate on heating will be in force only until 1 July 2015. Moreover, the planned real estate tax for properties evaluated at more than LTL 750,000 (EUR 217,000) is 0.5 percent.

“The Coalition has been working productively indeed. We believe that we have made fundamental corrections, especially regarding the social situation of every employee. The proposals are balanced and will be submitted to the Government, we hope they will be approved and adopted, and that there will be no problems during the vote on the budget,” said Šiaulienė.

Petras Gražulis, chair of the Order and Justice political group, claimed that the ruling parties have revised the budget making it more socially responsible. He hopes that additional LTL 30 million (EUR 8.7 million) is found for children’s extracurricular activities and for statutory public servants. For this reason Gražulis proposed to reduce defence funding by LTL 100 million (EUR 29 million) but the coalition partners opposed this.