Relevant for many: the business offers to send employees to military training – this is how it would go

According to Vidmantas Janulevičius, president of the Confederation of Lithuanian Industrialists, the “4 percent” initiative aims to get politicians to agree on faster defense financing.

According to him, the country’s industrial companies, in addition to agreeing to pay higher taxes, could send their workers to military training for a week. According to him, such an initiative would cost the business about 1.5 billion. euros.

“We agree to send each individual employee to their respective employees for a week, with broken schedules – who will fight, who will defend the homeland, who will work in the rear, who will work as nurses, who will work in logistics,” V. Janulevičius told reporters.

Giedrė Kaminskaitė-Salters, head of the telecommunications company Telia Lietuva, said that the “4 percent” initiative marks a historic moment when businesses “stand up and say they want higher taxes.”

According to her, the business is determined to pay higher taxes due to defense in order to protect its investments in Lithuania, as well as its employees.

“It is impressive that (for the “4 percent” initiative – BNS) the biggest competitors united,” she said.

The initiators of the “4 percent” call on the authorities to negotiate more defense funding

Business encourages society and politicians to agree to allocate 4 percent to defense. the authors of the gross domestic product (GDP) initiative “4 percent” call on the authorities to start discussions on higher defense funding as soon as possible.

“In 23 days, our initiative collected more than 50 thousand. qualified electronic signatures. (…) This morning we shared the petition with the responsible institutions. Our next expectation is to initiate meetings with the institutions as soon as possible and start a discussion on how the initiative could be turned into reality as soon as possible”, Mantas Mikuckas, chairman of the board of “4 per cent”, said at the press conference on Monday.

The petition, which wants to urge politicians to agree on 4% as soon as possible. 51.6 thousand had signed on Monday morning for the defense of GDP financing. population.

“This is a real, civil public initiative that needs to be read and taken seriously,” M. Mikuckas told journalists.

The petition is forwarded to the President, the Seimas and the Government, and in the near future the initiators will meet with the President, the heads of the Seimas and the Government and hand over the collected signatures.

Andrius Romanovskis: when we get involved in discussions, we get away from the point

Andrius Romanovskis, president of the Lithuanian Business Confederation, said that business calls on politicians to agree on a “principled strategic decision”.

“Our expectation is that the political parties – as they previously agreed on 2 percent, as they agreed on 3 percent. – would also agree on 4 percent. without any preconditions and would go towards that goal”, A. Romanovskis said at the press conference on Monday.

According to him, it would be possible to discuss specific sources of funding once it was agreed that 4 percent should be allocated to national defense. GDP.

“Let’s agree on 4 percent, review the national political party agreement and move forward.” (…) By getting involved in discussions, objections, disputes, whether with one percentage or another (some taxes for defense should be increased – BNS), we are moving away from the essence. The point is a strategic consensus on 4 percent,” said A. Romanovskis.

Business unites for the “4 percent” initiative

“4 percent” was initiated at the end of March by the support organization for Ukraine “Blue/Yellow”, telecommunications companies “Telia Lietuva”, “Bitė Lietuva”, “Tele2”, startups “Tesonet” and “Vinted”, “Teltonikos” group of companies, other well-known Lithuanian companies companies.

“We can already see, (…) we can also offer measures and how it would be possible to increase Lithuania’s defense potential quickly, fairly cheaply and very significantly”, – Blue/Yellow manager Jonas Ohmanas said at the press conference.

In March, the government proposed four defense funding alternatives, which were debated for several weeks by representatives of business and workers, who presented their proposal to politicians.

Politicians want to increase defense funding to 3 percent. BVP aims to create a division in the army faster, to accept a German brigade in Lithuania by 2027 and to prepare for general conscription.

The government also promises to establish a special fund, where funds would be accumulated for defense against higher taxes, and residents could also donate to it.

Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė previously said that politicians and social partners are getting closer to an agreement on several sources to increase defense funding, including a higher corporate tax rate. She later stated that discussions on increasing this tax by 1.5 or 2 percentage points are possible.

Ingrida Šimonytė: “We will need to take care of our security further and even more”

I. Šimonytė was pleased that not only politicians, but also businessmen and proactive citizens were concerned about national defense.

“The biggest advantage of this civic action is that people thought about whether it was really important and it turned out to be important for many,” the Prime Minister said on LRT radio on Monday during the presidential candidates’ debate.

However, to implement this idea, according to I. Šimonytė, an additional billion euros would be needed, which someone would have to pay or this money would be collected from taxpayers.

“And these are already very considerable amounts. Bearing in mind that now, when the parties are discussing how to reach 3% from GDP financing in the near future, that is, preferably from 2025, it is obvious that having a greater ambition is possible and necessary, but I would still be a supporter of the fact that we first make decisions about what is a closer goal”, said the Prime Minister.

“I think we are on the right track and we will find those solutions, but it will probably not be the end of the discussion, because the threat is unlikely to disappear somewhere in the near future.” We will need to take care of our security further and even more”, added I. Šimonytė.

Gitanas Nausėda: we should talk about funding sources

G. Nausėda also welcomed the “4 percent” initiative, but emphasized that the issue of defense financing has two sides.

“It’s one thing to set a goal and work toward it, maybe in one year, maybe in three years, maybe in five.” It would be better if it were faster,” said the head of the country.

According to the president, the other side of the question is what sources will be used to collect the additional money? In this aspect, G. Nausėda said that he misses solidarity. As an example, he gave one of the ideas of the “4 percent” initiative, which calls for increasing the value added tax.

“As an economist, I can say that the value-added tax is paid by the final consumer or resident. And then it turns out that some campaign for a higher percentage, while others have to pay for it,” commented G. Nausėda.

The President was happy that discussions about what could become the sources of funding have already started and it is gradually becoming clear at whose expense that funding would increase. He named the business income tax and the increase of excise duties as possible alternatives.

“It is already becoming specific amounts of money. Probably, it is far from reaching that one billion euros, but I repeat once again: the idea of ​​moving towards a larger financing of the country is welcome and now we should honestly talk about how much each group of society can contribute to that financing”, said G. Nausėda.