The Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LFMI) congratulates the new cabinet on the approval of its programme and the authorisation given by the parliament. The new government’s programme delineates a range of policies designed to continue ongoing reforms and to initiate long-awaited changes in areas that remain unaddressed. To achieve the goals of the programme, LFMI proposes imperative actions in the following directions:
1. To ensure that government expenditures are not increased, to reduce state investments, loan guarantees and state borrowing.
2. To change the principles of budget formation and state investment by making budget allocations serve well-defined goals and policies.
3. To allocate proceeds from privatisation only for the execution of the privatisation process, transition to fully-funded pension insurance and the savings compensation programme.
4. To change the principles of legislation so that laws ensure equality under the law and are well-grounded, congruous and workable.
5. To increase transparency and openness of privatisation by selling state property on the stock exchange; to abolish tenders and direct negotiations.
6. To reduce the tax burden by abolishing the corporate income tax, lowering the personal income tax, eliminating the road tax, etc.
7. To reduce the powers of government authorities to take punitive actions against economic agents, to reduce fines, to end the practice of imposing fines on turnover and one-sided exaction of fines, etc.
8. To liberalise labour relationships by eliminating restrictions on employment contracts and mandatory minimum working hours, reducing the minimum wage, etc.
9. To reduce business regulations by eliminating mandatory bills of lading and timesheets, simplifying business registration and operational requirements, abolishing mandatory certification of goods from EU and EFTA countries, revoking the ban on tobacco advertising, etc.
10. To simplify customs procedures.
11. To narrow state social insurance, to outlaw the granting of new rights to state pensions and the right to receive several pensions from the state.
12. To reduce the number of regulatory authorities by eliminating redundant state and municipal functions as well as budget allocations; to enforce the execution of approved policy decisions.
