Riga City Council committee supports budget amendments, but rejects additional allocation to Rigas Satiksme

RIGA - The Riga City Council financial and administration affairs committee today supported amendments to the city's 2019 budget, but at the same time, rejects request for additional allocation to Rigas Satiksme municipal transport company, LETA learned.

Traditionally, the opposition lawmakers did not support the budgetary amendments.

The committee first discussed the budget amendments on October 18, but later, unable to reach an agreement on separate issues, postponed the meeting.

Rigas Satiksme will be allocated EUR 1.5 million from state transfers. The company's management had asked for additional EUR 2.9 million from the city's budget, but this request was rejected. 

The Riga City Council financial department acting head Uldis Rakstins said that even without the local council subsidy, Rigas Satiksme plans to close this year with EUR 1.3 million in profit. Together with the state subsidies worth EUR 9.68 million, the company this year has already received EUR 139.68 million in subsidies.

In line with the budget amendments, this year's revenue to the Riga city budget will be by EUR 8.62 million lower than planned, while expenditure will be by EUR 33.44 million lower than planned. The budget deficit has dropped to EUR 86.5 million compared to the earlier plan of EUR 110.07 million.