Eesti in brief

According to the Tax and Customs Board, there were 99,000 individuals and institutions with tax debts in the beginning of June, reports National Broadcasting. In the beginning of January, the number of those with tax debts was nearly 137,000, though by May this dropped to 109,000. Deputy Director of the board Dmitri Jegorov noted that in six months, the number of tax-payers with debts to the State has fallen by 38,000. “This means that adherence to tax laws is improving and the collection of more money in the State Treasury will make it possible to provide more and better public services,” he said. Most of those with tax debts - 78,300 - are individuals. The biggest share of tax-payers with debts - 48,400 - are those whose debt is less than 1,000 kroons. 1,100 debtors have a tax debt of more than a million kroons. In comparison to the month of May, the total debt amount has also fallen. While a month ago the principal debt amounted to 6.2 billion kroons, now it is 6.1 billion kroons.

For years, the Latvian and Estonian Ministries of Education, and the City of Riga, have failed to reach an agreement on how to repair the Estonian School in Riga and to build the necessary extension to the building, reports National Broadcasting. The Estonian School in Riga is dilapidated and in urgent need of repairs. The City of Riga is the building’s owner, though the Estonian Ministry of Education is prepared to allocate funds for furnishing the building, but not for repair work. “Twenty years ago, when the school was re-established, there were many pupils, one of whose parents was Estonian. At the moment, there are many of those who have Estonian roots or an Estonian background, but there are also many Latvian pupils,” stated the director of the school, Urve Alvare. The Estonian State pays the wages of the Estonian language teacher working in Riga and sends textbooks and other study materials to the school. Currently, the school has 170 pupils.