At the same time, the government supported around 90 proposals submitted by ministries for the second reading, most of them were technical and editorial proposals.
Among them, a total of 210 proposals were submitted for bills accompanying the budget, of which the Ministry of Finance (FM) offered to support 48 proposals with a fiscally neutral impact.
The representatives of the Ministry of Finance (FM) informed the LETA agency that the government considered the submitted proposals for the second reading of next year’s state budget in the Saeima. Sectoral ministries had submitted proposals that were in line with what was decided by the government and did not have a negative impact on the state budget. All proposals have compensatory measures, such as internal expenditure reallocations of line ministries or additional revenue measures.
Among them, the government supported the proposals of the Ministry of Defense, which envisages carrying out internal redistribution in order to provide financing for the increase of the share capital of SIA “Valsts pradeshka korporācija” in order to implement measures for the development of the defense industry. Internal redistribution was also approved to ensure the necessary funding for strengthening defense functions and the redistribution of expenses in connection with ensuring the necessary monitoring and capability development.
The FM informs that the Ministry of the Interior has submitted 26 proposals related to increasing funding for ensuring the identity of natural persons in the electronic environment and maintaining a qualified electronic signature platform and solutions, as well as ensuring the construction and operation of disaster management centers. The government also approved the purchase of six fire trucks.
Among them, the government decided to support the proposal of the Ministry of the Interior within the framework of the budget program “Activities of the Financial Intelligence Service” to redistribute expenses between the measures in 2025-2027 annually, reducing the expenses for goods and services for the 2024-2026 priority measure “On those allowed by the legislation of the European Union exceptions in the application of sanctions and the competent authorities of Latvia in the application of these exceptions” in the amount of 12,000 euros and correspondingly increasing expenses for goods and services in information technology services to ensure effective tracking of criminal flows in the virtual asset environment.
The government also approved the proposals of the Ministry of Welfare to redistribute funds internally within the framework of the basic budget in order to increase the amount of compensation for assistants and companions from 732 euros to 766 euros per month. Also supported is the provision of a psychosocial rehabilitation program in the form of maintenance therapy for children aged two to seven years after diagnosis of autism or suspicion of autistic spectrum disorders and early interventions received in a medical institution.
At the same time, the proposals of the Ministry of Education and Science envisage the redistribution of funding to ensure the salary of pedagogues in private and international educational institutions, taking into account the impact of changes in the number and structure of students. The approved proposal also provides for the internal redistribution of funding to ensure funding for the increase of the social scholarship “Studētgods” to 180 euros per month from the spring semester of 2025, to raise the income threshold to be able to apply for this scholarship, as well as to introduce a new group of scholarship recipients.
On the other hand, the proposal of the Ministry of Health envisages supplementing the draft law with a new article in order to ensure state participation in regional hospitals and a further process of promoting the efficiency of the management of medical institutions, if necessary. Proposals that provide for redistribution in order to continue providing children with hemato-oncological preparations at home were also supported.
The Ministry of Transport’s proposal to use the funding of 14,400 euros for 2025 and 14,400 euros for 2026 for the 2024-2026 priority event “Implementation of the representation of the written Latvian language in official instructions” of the budget sub-programme “Maintenance and renovation of national highways” to would not only provide public indications of the borders of Latvian historical lands and cultural spaces in Latgalian, but also in Libyan.
The Ministry of Smart Administration and Regional Development, in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Education and Science, has been instructed to prepare and submit to the Cabinet of Ministers for consideration a draft of the normative act for the establishment of the National Artificial Intelligence Center by December 1, 2024.
In order to ensure the application of the changes to the regulatory acts included in the package of the draft law “On the state budget for 2025 and the budget framework for 2025, 2026 and 2027” as of January 1, 2025, within the funds allocated to the State Revenue Service and the State Social Insurance Agency in 2024. was assigned to ensure the necessary adaptation of the information technology systems.
The government took note that in connection with the change of the status of the National Botanical Garden from a derived public entity to a state direct administration institution, in the budget of the Ministry of Smart Administration and Regional Development, funds have been redistributed between economic classification codes, increasing compensation expenses in the amount of 1,383,537 euros for 2025 and beyond every year, which is considered an exception when evaluating the increase in the amount of the compensation fund for the implementation of the basic functions compared to 2024 updated plan as of July 31.
The FM emphasizes that a total of 425 proposals for the state budget and accompanying bills have been received in the Saeima. For the measures presented in several proposals, a solution and a suitable source of financial resources have been proposed in the proposals prepared by the government, according to the FM.
The rule of procedure of the Saeima stipulates that the budget commission responsible for the Saeima submits proposals for the state budget project to the Cabinet of Ministers for an opinion.
The committee responsible for examining the proposals submitted for next year’s budget project will start immediately after receiving the opinion of the Cabinet of Ministers on each of them, informs the Chairman of the Budget Commission Jānis Reirs (JV).
It is expected that the final reading of the draft law “On the state budget for 2025 and the budget framework for 2025, 2026 and 2027” and the accompanying draft of 31 budget drafts will be considered by the Saeima on December 4.
Source: www.diena.lv
