President Egils Levits promulgated the Law on State Budget for 2021, the Law on Medium-Term Budget Content for 2021, 2022 and 2033, as well as laws associated with the budget for 2021.
Still, the president also offered a detailed assessment of the content of the state budget and the procedure under which the law was approved.
Because the Saeima declared all laws contained in the budget package as urgent, in accordance with the Constitution
the President of Latvia did not have the right to request repeated review of the law, and it was necessary to promulgate the aforementioned laws.
In total the Latvian Herald has published 30 laws and the president’s statement on the state budget package for 2021.
“The 2021 state budget is the biggest one in Latvia’s history, and I am happy to see that this budget has seen an increase of that part of expenditures. However, COVID-19 pandemic and lack of clarity over its influence and length will leave an impact on the next economic year,” said president Levits in this statement on the state budget for 2021 and the country’s future development.
As of December 11, the promulgated law approves the state budget for 2021.
Next year’s budget revenue is planned at EUR 9.585 billion and expenditures are planned at EUR 10.764 billion.
The volume of grants for municipalities is planned at EUR 405,086,146.
In his statement about the state budget’s approval process, Levits said he had carefully followed the budget discussion process in the Saeima and that he had submitted proposals to the government and had engaged in discussions with social partners. The president also outlined multiple major aspects that should be improved in the legal system.
“There was no objective reason for the urgency and mechanical exclusion of the president from the budget approval process. The budget project cannot serve as a post-modern sort of Section 81 of the Constitution that allows the executive power to quickly put together regulations favorable to itself through the Saeima by putting in the state budget package poorly developed and poorly discussed reforms. With reforms it is important to provide a sufficient transition period between promulgation of the law and them coming into force so that the law has enough time to study the law and plan their actions accordingly,” says Levits. (BNN/Business World Magazine)
