Riga City Council and Ministry of Environment Protection and Regional Development reach compromise on discounts for all passengers of Riga public transport
On February 6 Minister of Environment Protection and Regional Development Einārs Cilinskis and Chairman of Riga City Council Nils Ušakovs held a meeting where they reached a compromise on fare discounts for all passengers of Riga public transport.
The Ministry of Environment Protection and Regional Development and Riga City Council agreed to draw up amendments to the law «On Local Governments» in order to revise the list of functions assigned to Riga as the Republic of Latvia capital and to offer solutions for funding these functions, including the price of tickets in public transport.
The minister and the mayor also agreed that a new law on equalization of finances of local governments is to be developed in order to compensate Riga for the expenditures related with fulfilling the functions to be defined in the planned amendments.
„Its is important that we have solved differences with Riga City Council, yet, in addition to the task of drafting a new financial equalisation law, the ministry has to agree with the Latvian Alliance of Local Governments, which discounts local governments will be allowed to grant to their declared residents,” E.Cilinskis emphasised.
As it is impossible to make amendments to this year’s State budget anymore, both E. Cilinskis and N.Ušakovs believe that the amendments to the law «On Local Governments» and also the new law on equalisation of finances of local governments may come into force in 2015.
In this situation, Riga City Council is ready to allocate necessary funds from the city budget to provide a 50% discount from the single ticket’s cost price, i.e. the tariff of EUR 0.60, until January 1, 2015, for both Riga residents and residents of other local governments.
„The agreement we have reached today is an important step forward on the national level, it will allow relations between Riga and the state to be normalised, will define the obligations of Riga as a capital city and will set mechanisms of financial compensation. Given the fact that it’s impossible to enforce these amendments before January 1, 2015 due to external factors, Riga city is ready to grant the same discounts in Riga public transport to all residents of Latvia until the end of this year. Our goal has been always to normalise financial relations between Riga and the state, not to collect money from residents. Given the significant number of newly declared residents, who pay taxes to Riga budget since January 1, the city can afford a tariff of EUR 0.60 for both Rigans and residents of other municipalities until the end of this year,” Nils Ušakovs said.
At the same time, Riga will keep on developing the project of «Riga resident’s card», offering new services, advantages and discounts to its holders.
Information prepared by the Public Relations Section of Riga City Council.
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