Minister for Finance Einars Repse with a budget portfolio(02.11.2009) has arrived to the Chairman of the Saeima to submit the next year's budget draft and the accompanying bill package.

This week several responsible institutions and social partners meetings have been planned, in order to discuss the development of 2011 state budget. However it is still unclear when exact proposals for the budget deficit reduction will be presented.

The Ministry of Finance (MF) promises that a wide range of proposals will be developed and submitted to the new government for approval.

The head of Ministry of Finance Communications Department Baiba Melnace informed LETA that as a continuation of the budget plan development, Ministry of Finance together with other representatives of the government will participate in various forums informing deputies, entrepreneurs, social partners and other non-governmental organizations about current macro-economical tendencies, tax policy guidelines, as well as tax revenues and their trends in eight months this year.

Today the representatives of MF will meet with many entrepreneurs in the sitting of the National Economy of Latvia in the Ministry of Economics. MF will inform about the government revenue and expenditures implementation in the eight months of the present year and the progress made in connection with the development of tax guidelines.

On Wednesday, September 8, the Minister for Finance Einars Repše (Einars Repše) and other the representatives of MF will take part in Reforms management group meeting, where it is planned to discuss the current macroeconomic development scenario and state budget 2010 implementation. The same issues will also be talked about in Saeima Budget and finances (taxes) commission sitting.

On Thursday, September 9, Repse and other specialists from the Ministry of Economics together with the social partners will participate in the National Tripartite Cooperation Council sitting, in order to discuss the current macroeconomic development scenario and state budget 2010 implementation.

MF emphasizes that the state budget draft preparation work is conducted in correspondence with the Cabinet of Ministers approved schedule. Base expenditure forecasts, macroeconomic forecasts, tax policy guidelines, the plan to reduce shadow economy, the function evaluation report have been prepared.

The consultants from outside – the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) – are preparing recommendations for the expenditure optimization, which could be submitted to Latvia in late September or early October.

As a result of all these events and measures the new government will have a wider range of proposals for budget consolidation than the expected amount of consolidation. This will allow the newly elected Parliament and its confidence gained Cabinet of Ministers to take high-quality decisions.