Budget debate brewing in Latvia

  • 2004-06-03
  • By The Baltic Times
RIGA – On Tuesday Parliament's administrative committee supported Parliament's draft budget for 2005 that envisages a 12.9 percent increase in spending for parliamentary needs, an initiative that was strongly criticized by oppositionist MPs.

According to preliminary figures, the draft budget calls for expenditures of 9.7 million lats (14.5 million euros) for the needs of Parliament next year. The biggest proposed increase comes on wages to parliamentary staff and lawmakers 4.2 million lats) and payment for services to Parliament (1.3 million lats). Also, more than 1 million lats next year will be spent on Parliament's fleet of cars.
MPs from the opposition New Era party sharply objected to the sizeable budget spending increase at the committee meeting, the Baltic News Service reported.
New Era MP Artis Kampars suggested the committee approve the budget at 9.3 million lats and called on the Parliament's chancellery to assess how well based the expenditures are.
However, the committee supported the expense increases and decided to send it to the Finance Ministry.
The row is a pre-glimpse into the upcoming battle for the 2005 budget. The past two budgets were largely put together by New Era, which headed the ruling coalition at the time, and were mired in controversy due to then Prime Minister Einars Repse's insistence that ministries slash their initial budgets. Now in the opposition, New Era will fight have to the minority coalition, which could be inclined to increase government expenditures.