In Latvia, there is currently no reason to raise taxes, Inna Steinbuka, Chairman of the Council on Fiscal Discipline (CFD), said on Thursday in the “900 Seconds” program on TV3. She noted that the Latvian economy is still growing very slowly, which is also bad for state budget, but in the first half of this year, total tax revenues fell behind the target by only 2%. “The half of the year looks relatively promising,” Steinbuka said, explaining that in the second half of the year, if no global shocks occur, Latvia’s economic growth can be expected to improve. Thus, when working on the state budget for next year in Latvia, there is no reason to raise taxes, Steinbuka believes. “Looking at the real numbers, I would say that I don’t see any tragedy and I don’t see any reason to raise taxes at the moment,” said the chairman of the SFD. She also emphasized that a breakthrough in the economy can be achieved not by changing taxes, but by increasing labor productivity, introducing technology, and stimulating investment. “We have yet to see what will happen with tax revenues in the summer months. […] We should not mislead the public that we will definitely have to increase something,” Shteinbuka said, adding that, for example, talking about It is now premature to increase the value added tax (VAT) rate. "Tax collection data for June shows that VAT collections continue to improve, consistent with improving consumption data. However, labor taxes are lagging behind plan, which does not correlate with the improvement in gross wages observed in the first quarter of the year. The FDS notes that the increase The annual gross payroll is 11% higher than in the previous year. The Council also notes that 95% of the total planned tax volume was collected in June, although this was 62 million euros less than planned. The monthly target for tax groups was only exceeded. VAT – by 18%, while the plan for mandatory state social insurance contributions was underfulfilled by 13%, for corporate income tax – by 9%, for excise taxes – by 5% and personal income tax – by 4%.
