“LVK actively participated in discussions both in the Government and in the Tripartite Council, and we continue to take the position of not supporting the collection of fines and economic sanctions debts in the state by the Government”, said E. Ruželė at the meeting of the Seimas Budget and Finance Committee this week.
“The main argument is that the RRF (Economic Revitalization and Resilience Fund – ELTA) finances the part where the information system and data are concerned, (…) we agree with that, but when it comes to the collection itself, we believe that the bailiffs continue should do it,” he noted.
At that time, Irmantas Gaidelis, the chairman of the presidium of the Lithuanian Chamber of Bailiffs, assured that the project was adopted “exclusively for the benefit of the bailiffs”, but raised the question of how the concept of “inadvertent debtor” is defined.
“It is very gratifying to see that the project is accepted exclusively for the benefit of bailiffs. In order to reduce the enforcement costs that people pay, they will increase by 3 million. euros. (…) Bailiffs will receive 2.9 million euros more. Is this project aimed at reducing the income of bailiffs? It is probably obvious that it is not”, said I. Gaidelis.
“The main achievement of this project is that the unwitting borrower will pay less.” I would really like to know how an involuntary borrower is defined,” he said.
Finally, Finance Minister Gintarė Skaistė noted that after the reform, it will become clear how obligations to the state are recovered.
“The initiated reform was aimed at consolidating the state’s accounting and administration of all debts and transferring this function to the State Tax Inspectorate. Also, give her the right to collect debts to the state from the accounts herself for 6 months and to make the collection process cheaper for unwitting debtors”, asserted G. Skaistė.
“At the moment, there are 3 quite different processes for the collection of obligations to the state, no data is provided on the part of the fulfillment of obligations to the state. After the reform, there will be one clear process of how obligations to the state are collected and there will be a “one stop shop” for fulfilling these obligations. The recovery process will be cheaper for unwitting borrowers,” she explained.
ELTA reminds that at the beginning of April, the Government approved the project “One window for paying obligations to the state” prepared by the Ministry of Finance, which envisages moving the administration of fines and amounts awarded to the electronic space and unifying the process of collecting all obligations administered by the State Tax Inspectorate (VMI).
Vice Minister of Finance Rūta Bilkštytė noted that the projects were prepared to solve the shortcomings of the existing system of administration of non-tax obligations in the state.
The project also aims to clearly determine the periods of postponement and arrangement of the tax arrears payment term, to waive the excessive demand for the postponement and arrangement of the tax arrears payment term, to determine the procedure for taking over the tax arrears to the Minister of Finance.
After the implementation of this investment project envisaged in the Lithuanian National Economic Recovery and Resilience Enhancement Plan (RRF), VMI would become the sole administrator of obligations to the state, avoiding duplication of functions and organizing activities on a one-stop basis.
Tags: LVK support Government collection fines debts state
