According to the prime minister, Lithuania pays close attention to the list of recommendations provided by the EC and is implementing the essential ones.
Butkevicius did not agree with an opinion that the government was overlooking Brussels' proposals on what to improve in Lithuania's economy.
"I really would not agree that the country pays little attention (to the recommendations — ELTA). Last year we reduced income taxation for employees whose salaries are LTL 3,100 (EUR 900), increased non-taxable personal income tax threshold and actual income for those people grew last year. We also increased the minimum monthly wage. We understand perfectly well that if all EC recommendations are implemented at once we would have to partially increase tax burden for residents as it has been proposed to tax immovable property," the prime minister told the national radio LRT.
According to the prime minister, new taxes are not needed in Lithuania, contrary to what the EC has proposed.
"We see that the economic situation is improving, consumption is growing as is the number of jobs. I hope that the trend continues. We would like to broaden the taxable base what would enable to generate additional revenue in every budget," said Butkevicius.
As reported, the European Commission adopted a series of economic policy recommendations to individual Member States to strengthen the recovery that began a year ago. The recommendations are based on detailed analyses of each country's situation and provide guidance on how to boost growth, increase competitiveness and create jobs in 2014-2015.
