The head of the Government stated that his decision was made in the light of the fact that after the tax relief abolition the price of heating might increase in some local governments.

'According to the findings of specialists and power engineers, unfortunately, there is no mechanism that would stop the price increase in the local governments. Therefore, I decided to suggest leaving the VAT relief on the central heating for an indefinite period. This decision would bring a budget deficit of 200 million litas. The deficit would have to be covered from other sources and we should not use 53 million litas planned to use for the compensation of heating. Besides, we should look for the opportunities to increase contributions to the budget by the state-owned companies and reducing planned expenditures', said Prime Minister A. Butkevičius.

According to the Prime Minister tax relief for heating would be established for an indefinite period and he proposed not to come back to this issue during present Government's term.