Farmers hope for a limit on the growth of NIR

On Tuesday, September 22, at a government meeting, after listening to the opinions of agricultural organizations and considering the prepared amendments to the law "On Real Estate Tax", a decision was made to calculate the real estate tax (RRT) from the special value (cadastral value of rural land with a certain increase limit). Farmers' organizations do not agree with the amendments to the law approved yesterday, which provide for a limit on the increase in special value to 20 % per year. After lengthy discussions, theConceptually, an agreement was reached at the Cabinet meeting with the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Justice on a smoother increase in the special value to 10% per year. Meanwhile, the decision of the Latvian Association of Local Governments on this issue is expected at the beginning of next week.The aforementioned changes are planned to be made when the draft law reaches the responsible Saeima committee.
Juris Lazdiņš, Chairman of the Board of the Farmers' Assembly, comments on the government's decision: “The increase in real estate tax (PIT) directly affects agricultural final product, making it less competitive. We emphasize that Latvian agricultural producers are sharply feeling the consequences of the Russian embargo this year. The rapid increase in NIS places Latvian farmers in an even more unequal position in relation to farmers in other European Member States.
For more than one farmer, the NIP has increased to as much as 300% in recent years. An additional increase of 100% is planned for the next five years, which will burden farmers in difficulty even more. Farmers hope that the agreement reached at the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday to limit the increase in the NIP to 10% will be respected.”
Currently, rural entrepreneurs also partially maintain state and municipal infrastructure with their own funds, such as ditches, ditch banks, and in some cases municipal roads, which municipalities are unable to maintain due to insufficient resources. If municipalities were invoiced for what they had done, the increase in private property tax would not nearly cover farmers' investments in municipal infrastructure.