Cabinet agrees on ceiling for budget amendments

RIGA – On July 10, the Cabinet of Ministers reached agreement on a 70 million lat (99.6 million euros) ceiling for any and all amendments to this year's national budget, Finance Ministry representatives told reporters after yesterday’s government meeting.

A precise breakdown of financing will be announced in the coming days as some ministries are still completing their requests. However, Finance Ministry Parliamentary Secretary Karina Korna informed that the largest amount of additional funding was requested by the Transport Ministry to implement the Latgale development program, maintain roads and cover passenger transporters' losses.

FinanceMinistry Deputy StateSecretary pointed out that, besides the Finance Ministry's request for extra funds for contributions to the European Union's budget, the Culture Ministry's budget request for theaters, various cultural institutions and the Latvian National Opera will also have a considerable impact.

The Health Ministry's request will be discussed during the next few days. As reported, the Health Ministry wants to receive extra 34.6 million lats within the framework of this year's budget amendments. The government, however, supported allocating slightly more than 24 million lats, as Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis (Unity) said after the meeting.

The prime minister explained that all requests connected with creating new positions or increasing salaries were not supported, with the exception of increasing teachers' salaries.

The total amount of requests exceeded 150 million lats.