On July 13, 2006 LFMI issued a press release presenting its evaluation of the programme of the 14th Government of the Republic of Lithuania. According to the Institute, the new programme, entitled “In the name of unity and wellbeing,” envisages too few measures for creating well-being and is rather the agenda of wasting, not creating, welfare.
According to LFMI, the 14th Government continues the tradition to retain much leeway to do what they please because, for example, no commitment to abstain from imposing new taxes have been set among other obligations. LFMI also pointed that the Government has not distinguished, among the most acute economic problems, Lithuania’s lagging competitiveness and diminishing investments, rampant and inefficient bureaucracies, overly meticulous and complicated regulation, inefficiency in running public sectors, and scandalous constrains in the land market.
LFMI voiced regrets that references to lowering taxes or crucial structural reforms are very vague and not concrete. For instance, a reduction of the personal income tax to 20 percent was listed with a phrase “if financial circumstances are favourable.”
Policy analysts also highlighted that the new Government plans to retain the state’s too active role in the market. In addition, the programme has been compiled with a view to distributing the welfare today, instead of proposing serious solutions to long-standing problems.
LFMI expressed a belief that the 14th Government would find ways to implement its agenda so that the welfare was created, not wasted.
