The Saeima faction of the Combined List (AS) met with Minister of Finance Arvils Ašeradens and the chief of the State Revenue Service (VID) Ieva Jaunzeme on Monday, the 3rd of April. VID Internal Security Office’s Director Aigars Prusaks was present as well.
AS public relations consultant Mudrīte Grundule reports that members of the faction regularly receive complaints about the work done by VID. People complain about VID being unable to deal with grey economy. On top of that, there are complaints about the institution’s poor reputation. This is why the faction wanted to learn the director general’s opinion on VID’s development strategy, reputation restoration and prevention of dishonest practices in the service’s operations, as well as implementation of the «consult first» principle.
«During our conversation we concluded that the head of VID has no idea how best to promote tax payment while helping the economy survive. The institution lacks leadership and comprehensive vision for necessary changes in VID’s operations.
The planned changes are cosmetic and are listed only on paper.
Continuing the same way as before, it will be impossible to ensure results that will help make VID operations more efficient, reduce bureaucracy, promote fair competition and fight tax dodgers. We want to see structural changes in VID, we can see the institution needs capital repairs,» admits Saeima AS faction leader Edgars Tavars.
The faction leader also said that AS believes that in order to ensure a breakthrough in economic development and to accomplish transformation of the economy,
it is necessary to have an efficiently working VID that is trusted by the public.
This is highly important, considering the very expansive authority and influence of VID. This is why the party invites Ašeradens to replace Jaunzeme and include the issue of reformation of VID to the agenda of the minister’s managed Tax Policy Improvement Coordination Group.
This group includes representatives knowledgeable in topics related to the national economy.
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