During the meeting, the President of Latvia noted, “Frequent changes in taxation policy do not stimulate entrepreneurial activity and do not encourage attraction of investments. That is why developing a stable and predictable taxation policy in Latvia is crucial for business development and further economic growth of the country.”
At the same time, the President of Latvia acknowledged that changes in the taxation system could be made if such a need was identified. However, businesses must be clear about a national vision for the future development of the taxation system in the long term to plan the necessary expenditure for the future development of business activities promptly.
During the meeting, the officials also discussed the measures taken by Latvia to improve the financial system, including restoring the goodwill of the banking sector.
“Improving the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism system is not just an issue of the stability of the financial system, but the issue of national security. Therefore, the assessment and prevention of financial security risks should be a priority for all responsible authorities. Failure to act responsibly and decisively might have consequences hurting the national economy as a whole,” outlined the President of Latvia.
The President of Latvia appreciated the contribution of the Ministry of Finance on the preparation of the 2019 state budget and invited the Minister of Finance to start working on the 2020 state budget in due time. “When shaping the 2020 state budget, the government must be able to offer sources of financial resources for any new initiative with a fiscal impact on the expenditure side, from which these initiatives will be funded to create a balanced and sustainable state budget in general,” noted Raimonds Vējonis.
The parties also discussed about strengthening the capacity and coordination of controlling authorities during the meeting, especially in the context of combating the shadow economy and strengthening the supervision of the financial sector.
It has already been reported that President of Latvia Raimonds Vējonis has planned to meet with all the ministers of the government led by Krišjānis Kariņš to hear the vision of the Ministers on the assignments to be fulfilled and priorities to be pursued in their supervised sectors in 2019 and later on.
