Analytics, Banks, Budget, Financial Services, Latvia, Society, Taxation

Asked to indicate what, in their opinion, should be done to increase budget revenue, 43% of respondents in the poll suggested cutting taxes, and 41% said it was necessary to ensure a more investment-friendly environment. A third of the surveyed people said that budget revenues could be increased by clamping down on tax evasion, and 31% called for export-promoting measures.

Also, 13% of respondents said budget revenues could be raised by upping excise tax on alcohol and tobacco, and 1 % said higher taxes would ensure higher budget revenue. At the same time, 7% of respondents had no idea how to increase budget revenue.

Commenting the results of the survey, Valsts Kalnins, a researcher at Providus center for public policy, said that most probably there was a reasonable point behind the belief that lower taxes would motivate people to pay them, but that reliance on such expectations would require very strong trust.

“People have made a wise point that to increase budget revenue, it is necessary to reduce taxes and create an investment-friendly environment. I can agree with that, because a lot of ill-considered decisions have been made in recent years,” said Janis Grasis, a professor at the BA School of Business and Finance.

The Latvian Barometer survey conducted in September, polling 1,002 respondents aged 18 to 74 across Latvia.

Baltic International Bank's Latvian Barometer is a monthly survey examining current processes in areas of economic and social importance. In the first part of the survey, respondents are asked a set of unchanging questions to pinpoint monthly changes in the general mood of the public but the questions in the second part each time deal with a different matter which is currently in the focus of the public attention.