GD MP Skeptical over Saakashvili’s Tax Amnesty Proposal

Georgian Dream (GD) lawmaker Davit Onoprishvili, who chairs parliamentary committee for budget and finances, said President Saakashvili’s proposal on tax amnesty would cause “budgetary crisis”.

“What the President is talking about – to grant complete amnesty to economic entities and to write-off penalties – is actually impossible, because it will cause budgetary crisis because lot’s of funds will not be mobilized in the budget,” MP Onoprishvili told Rustavi 2 TV on January 18.

He added that this proposal by the President was made with “lie in wait” approach to then attack the government for budgetary crisis.

President Saakashvili said on January 17 that he would initiate a bill envisaging tax amnesty and decriminalization of economic offenses.

“In the view of existing economic situation, I offer the government to declare complete amnesty for all the tax arrears,” Saakashvili said. “In parallel, [the government] should decriminalize economic offenses and not to apply prison terms for such [offenses].”

He said that such move would be important against the background of, as he said, slowed down economic growth and declining foreign direct investments.

Earlier this week secretary general of President Saakashvili’s UNM party, ex-PM Vano Merabishvili, said that the country was entering into “budgetary crisis”. The Finance Ministry dismissed allegation as “irresponsible and anti-state”.

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