Budget, Estonia, Financial Services, Taxation

When responding to journalists’ questions at the Government press conference on Thursday, the Prime Minister noted that while previously it has been stated that by the end of the year the tax revenue may exceed projections by approximately 2 billion kroons, the tax revenue collected in August give cause for even more optimistic expectations.

“All taxes have been collected relatively well – particularly excise tax and also social tax,” he stated.

According to the head of Government, by now the State has collected approximately 68% of the expected tax revenue. He stated that earlier years have not yielded such positive results and then the tax revenue collected during the same period of time has ranged from 63-65%.

Ansip also refuted claims as if the State has no money to pay pensions. He asserted that there will be no pension cuts and all pensions would be paid in time.

The Estonian Prime Minister remarked that compiling next year’s State budget is a more difficult task than implementing this year’s budget, but the Government is not planning to raise any taxes. The excise tax rate on tobacco will grow by 10% from January 1 as it has been decided beforehand. “No other tax rates are planned to be changed,” he emphasised.

Ansip remarked that the budgetary situation will be under some pressure due to the fact that the State payments to the second pillar pension funds will be restored and that makes the budgetary situation slightly more difficult.

“The Government is not planning to relax its stance in fiscal policy issues,” he stated, however.